There is nothing worse than feeling like you’re not in control of your own life. Hell, there’s an entire pop psychology industry dedicated to teaching us how to retake our agency when we feel ourselves at the whim of external forces. We make plans, we self-analyze, we set routines for ourselves, all in an effort to feel like we have a say in the paths our lives take.
These attempts at control can of course come in many forms, impacting our lives in big or small ways. Take me and my comics consumption, for instance. One way I like to exert a modicum of control on this small sector of my life is to wait until a series has been fully published before I start reading it. This is not to say I don’t enjoy dropping into a good ongoing book, but even then, I like to hold off until a creator’s run or a major arc is done. I tend to be a completionist, which means I find it a little overwhelming to start something when there’s no resolution in sight. For me, it’s more manageable to commit to a book once I know its entire story has been told. It’s not always the most fun approach – I deal with a lot of FOMO while a highly-regarded work is still ongoing, which leads to delayed gratification while I wait for said series or run to wrap up – but I find myself doing it again and again.
But I broke my “rule” last year when I reviewed the first collected volume of James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martinez Bueno, and Jordie Bellaire’s masterful horror series The Nice House on the Lake for this very website. But knowing Tynion and company were set to wrap the whole thing up after twelve issues, I told myself I’d read the first half, then wait for the conclusion to come out before reading the rest. Well, I tore through the first six issues in about an hour, and have thought about the series frequently ever since.
And now The Nice House on the Lake #12 is finally out, and despite my best efforts, I’ve come to see that I haven’t been in control of this experience for a second. Much like the group of hand-picked survivors at the center of this story, I have only been a party to selectively revealed information and half-truths. But unlike them, I could not be more thrilled by the structure the architect of this story has created and where it leaves us at the end. Some spoilers to follow!
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