It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Clark not having your nonsense Cave…

Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye #7
Writer: Jon Rivera & Gerard Way
Artist: Michael Avon Oeming & Nick Filardi
Letters: Clem Robins
Covers: Michael Avon Oeming; Nick Filardi; Robert Hack
Editor: Molly Mahan
Publisher: DC Comics
$3.99

 

The Whisperer has its tentacles deep in Cave (in every sense) and begins ripping apart his psyche, forcing him to relive his memories – not how they actually happened but the funhouse version. It’s brutal and genuinely alarming, especially when The Whisperer doesn’t have to tweak the memories and just uses Cave’s fear and guilt about his actual actions against him. It’s only the timely intervention of Clark (whom Cave called in for backup two issues previously, though he thought the call didn’t get through) that saves Cave from getting completely taken over but things are far from okay…

It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a Cave focused issue and it comes at just the right time in the narrative. While all of the previous issues have dealt with the emotional well being (or lack thereof) of our protagonists, usually they’re narratives are intersecting, showing how their behavior and choices affect and are interpreted by others. Here we get an all Cave issue and it’s a doozy. From the outset it’s been clear that Cave is a mess, never fully recovering from the death of his wife and the fallout to their family unit. However, this issue makes it clear that Cave’s problems go back far further than we, or he, thought. His guilt over the decisions he’s made professionally and personally, and the people he’s lost (emotionally, physically or both) makes him easy pickings for The Whisperer. It’s heartbreaking and ugly and extremely, messily, honest.

The team of Michael Avon Oeming, Nick Filardi and Clem Robins continue their outstanding work, with some truly surreal imagery. Having The Man of Steel guest star doesn’t slow their roll in the slightest and he’s incorporated into the very distinct CCHACE universe perfectly. Thanks to their art we see Clark as Cave sees him and while it’s tinged with some serious hero worship it’s still Clark. Meanwhile, The Whisperer is every bad tentacle based nightmare come to life and every bit as emotionally and mentally invasive as you’d think. Oeming, Filardi and Robins make his malice and smug superiority leap of the page with every twitch and slithering dialogue box.

In comics, as with music, I don’t like too many guest stars as a rule, however this is one team up that works on several levels.

Five cigarettes out of Five.