Middlewest #12 // Review
Fox has just watched his best friend Abel get taken off by a sinister company that uses children as slave labor on vast, dangerous farms. Normally a fierce individualist, Fox knows that he’s in over his head. He’d going to need to go for help in Middlewest #12. Skottie Young’s deeply engrossing serial continues with gorgeous atmospheric art by Jorge Corona. Colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu adds the atmosphere with color that fuses a very organic small-town midwestern feel with elements of the fantastic. The series reaches an interesting turning point as its central protagonist finds himself in truly deep trouble for the first time all series.
Fox knows that he needs help from the only people who would care enough to actually help him out. Not only has Abel been taken-in by the sinister Raider Farms slavers, so too has the firl techie named Bobby. Both were employed by Maggie’s traveling circus...Fox knows that he has to return as quickly as possible and ask Maggie for help. She’s reluctant to do so, but she knows what she has to do. Elsewhere Abel and Bobby discover the beautiful terror of the Ethol fields they will be working in, and Abel’s father continues to seek the son who was pushed away by his cataclysmic anger.
Young’s scripting this issue brings together various elements in a way that amplified the tension. Fox’s need to go back to Maggie forces her to confront her own past with her estranged husband. The sudden revelation about her reluctance to confront the man behind Raider Farms feels a bit forced, but other than that, everything comes together quite well. The collision between Maggie and her husband forced by Fox’s concern for Abel and Bobby cleverly ratchets=up the tension. The beautiful horror of Raider Farms’ Ethol fields heightens the tension for Abel and Bobby as well.
Corona’s dynamic art crawls around with Fox for the first few pages. With no dialogue, Corona is given an open canvas with which to deliver a very long and lonely journey. It’s beautiful stuff. The drama between Maggie and her husband feels very strong, but the most amazing stuff brought to the page by Corona this issue involves Raider Farms. The ethereal galaxy of the Ethol fields looks particularly gorgeous illuminated by Beaulieu’s striking luminescent colors. Beaulieu is also given an open canvas to work within numerous panels featuring hazy Middlewestern skies this issue. When not looking up to the sky, Corona sometimes perches a panel from a high angle looking directly down on the action in a framing technique, which still manages to hold an impact every time that Corona executes it.
Young and Corona seem to have been building up to some kind of showdown between Abel, his father, Maggie, and her husband for quite some time now. Now that everyone’s looking for Abel, there’s clearly a showdown of some sort coming in a series with a very diverse ensemble that plays fantasy against earthbound reality. Twelve issues in and Middlewest still feels new.
