What's The Furthest Place From Here? #4
The Academy goes to the Carnival in What's The Furthest Place From Here? #4, by writer Matthew Rosenberg, artist Tyler Boss, and letterer Hassan Otsame-Elhaou. Rosenberg and Boss use short, snappy chapters to push forward multiple plots, and it works wonderfully.
The Academy is brought to the Carnival, a gathering of the families. They are told to have fun but that there will be a meeting at dawn. Alabama tells them to stay together as they explore because all of their enemies are there but finally lets them split off into groups. From there, things gets complicated. As Alabama meets with the Blue Boys, Oberon and Merril have a discussion before he tell the young boy to leave and is ambushed, Prufrock thinks he found Sid and wanders into a house of mirrors with something sinister, Merril gets Mallory to help Oberon, and Alabama tries to make a deal.
Rosenberg has been doing something interesting in this series and subdividing each issue into consecutively numbered chapters that started in the first issue. While each one has been fairly short, never more than a few pages, this issue goes even farther with that approach. Most aren't more than two pages, quick shortcuts between scenes. A lot is going on in this issue, so this approach helps a lot in that respect.
The world-building in this comic is hard to identify as world-building sometimes because readers don't have a lot of answers at this point, but it still feels like a fully realized world. Rosenberg has done a great job of capturing just how bizarre everything is here while also hitting good character beats and selling emotions. Prufrock is still chasing Sid but is a bit of a screw-up in general. Oberon feels terrible about Sid leaving and blames himself. Merril has made good for his new family, choosing them over the old one. Mallory will do anything for her family. Alabama is a smart, capable leader. This issue reflects all of that while moving the narrative forward, Rosenberg playing out info and doing set-up for what's to come.
Boss does a remarkable job of bringing the Carnival to life. One can feel the heat of the crowds, smell the cotton candy, and hear the music. The colors capture the colorful, garish lighting of the whole thing. There's a scene where Prufrock goes on a ride that's ostensibly about how the world got to the way it is. Boss is able to capture the feel of a cheesy carnival thrill ride and ends it in a hall of mirrors. Boss is a great visual storyteller.
What's The Furthest Place From Here? #4 is a lot of fun. Rosenberg does an amazing job of setting up who the characters are and setting up what's coming. Boss's art brings the whole thing to life. This book just keeps impressing more and more.