What's the Furthest Place From Here? # 20 // Review
There’s an old Soviet satellite that’s fallen out of orbit. It’s breaking-up as it falls into the Earth...bits of it burning-up on re-entry. Alabama doesn’t know this. ALl he knows is that the night sky is suddenly filled with a great deal of light. “The sky is burning,” Alabama says. “Maybe this is what happens when we reach the end of our world?” He might be right about that, but it’s not something he’s going to know for sure in What’s the Furthest Place From Here? #20 Writer Tyler Boss and artist Matthew Rosenberg continue their journey through the wilderness at the edge of the world in another enjoyably bleak adventure issue.
Alabama is walking through some pretty cold territory that seems to be leading to the mountains. There’s really no reason in hell why they should be having any kind of an easy time with the weather or the terrain or anything like that. Thankfully, they DO run into a guy named Chase who will almost certainly help them out. The problem is that Alabama and company don’t exactly know whether or not they can truly trust the guy. He’s looking more than a bit out of his mind and he IS living in a particularly dangerous cave, so there’s no telling what could happen.
Boss’ dialogue is crisp and witty. The overall premise of the series isn’t really all that original, but the way he’s framing it makes the tale seem like the newest kind of storytelling imaginable. The ensemble that forms the heart of the series continue to be really likable and deeply vulnerable people. And though there’s reason to believe that they're not all going to make it through the series, there isn’t a whole lot of stress to be found in the prospect of their overall survival, so it’s just a lot of fun seeing them get in and out of danger as they do in the course of the issue.
There’s real darkness in what Rosenberg is bringing to the page. There’s a whole lot of heavy ink. Cold colors of winter are contrasted against the hot colors of fire...whether it’s in the upper atmosphere or right down to earth in the form of a bonfire. There’s a strong sense of drama filtering through everything. Subtlety might not necessarily be written into the faces of everyone on the page, but there certainly IS a sense of tension that comes across through every page and panel with remarkable clarity.
The journey continues into the unknown beyond the mountains. And though everyone in the ensemble feels distinct, they’re all survivors who are defined by the fact that they’ve survived, so they’re all essentially different versions of the same survivor archetype. So it’s an interesting journey with them that continues to be quite interesting as the series progresses. It’s been a great deal of fun so far. No end in sight. It’s been a great journey so far. No reason why it should end any time soon.
