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Abe Sapien #12

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    Nolando
    Senior Member

  • Abe Sapien #12



    Released by: Dark Horse Comics
    Released on: May 14, 2014


    A standout issue in the series features no dialog from the eponymous character at all. Rather, the story takes place from the point of view of two human survivors of the recent devastating events, two who have found each other and are helping define this new reality.

    [MILD LEVEL OF SPOILERS TO FOLLOW]




    The Man watches a dry creek bed from atop a rickety old house. Armed with a rifle, he knows that the New Creation will start there, will come right to their doorstep. “Their” due to the fact that The Woman is inside the house, preferring the safety and calm of the dark and quiet. The Man has sworn to protect her while The Woman tries to fight the traumatic memories that led her to this point.




    The majority of the story comes from The Man, who now waits for The Serpent to appear, the precursor to that arrival of New Creation. He thinks often of his own father, a strong, hard, cruel man that even now informs the actions of The Man. His context is often framed in terms of being worthy of this new role as Last Man Alive and the memories of his father's violence drive his feelings of worthlessness. So when Abe does finally appear The Man is then able to shoot him but, because he's weak, he's unable to kill him and now must hunt down the wounded beast.




    The Woman tries to think of the better times, before all this calamity, of her daughter and her playing and laughing at her sister's place, even being joyful after her husband left. But those memories are now tainted with how it all ended, when Hell itself seemed to burst forth. The car she was driving was caught in the overall destruction, twisted and thrown and nearly destroyed. The accident killed her sister and daughter but still The Woman tried to will life back into the daughter even though she could only reach her small hand.




    It was at this point, of ultimate, shocking loss, that The Man heard her crying and pain and knew he not only had to rescue her but protect her as she's clearly his “Eve.” Together, then, they make their way from the ruins of the city, to the country, to this ramshackle house. It's then revealed at this point that The Woman is bound to bed frame upon which she's lying, that she initially had attempted to escape from The Man but had finally just given up, her grief just too overwhelming. They both come to the conclusion that, in this new world, perhaps man cannot rise again, that humanity is resigned to this fate it deserves.

    The Man makes his way from the roof, silently but, to The Woman, “always with warning” in his eyes. He makes his way down to the ground floor, knowing he needs to finish off The Serpent. As he continues outside, though, Abe is waiting, disarming and at least knocking him out (if not killing him outright). The Woman hears the scuffle and tries desperately now to escape her bonds, screaming in horror when it's Abe that opens her bedroom door…

    Mythical and heavily-laden with religious overtones explicitly, this issue feels like a one-shot from Mignola and Scott Allie. It seems to serve as a new orientation on the character of Abe Sapien, who's been on his own sort of vision quest to start this series. It's a great way to check the overall structure of the series and the character's development and only writers thoroughly comfortable with their source material could show this kind of confidence. The artwork from Max Fiumara works perfectly here, isolating the characters out of and within shadows and broken scenery, too.
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