Dream Thief #4

written by Jai Nitz
art by Greg Smallwood

Despite his pattern of possessions and his complete loss of his body to his possessor in his sleep, John Lincoln shows a little more self-confidence in Dream Thief #4, more comfortably asserting his independence from the competing spirits:  "I'm not Frank," he repeats on two occasions.  Frank Best, Lincoln's latest dead spirit body-companion, was a con man and a gambler, and a good one, who seemingly ran afoul of a loan shark.  This time, Lincoln (and Frank) are burdened with Father Tommy Logan, a local priest and another apparent victim of hitman Joe Ferragamo, the dead body in the sinking car.  Against Frank's wishes and for the first time since the mask, John Lincoln saves a life.  It's little moves like this that allow Lincoln to continue to be quite likeable despite the string of murders that's carried him across the South.  He is, at heart, a good guy with a strong sense of humor and profound sympathy for the dead folks who keep using his body for their revenge.  And he internalizes their perspectives with admirable ease:  an Hispanic boxer; a gay, ex-Army porn star; a Black, female lawyer; and a con man.

To Lincoln's surprise, the near-dead priest recognizes his condition and seems able to help...in exchange for help of his own and over half a million dollars won in a poker tournament.  Lincoln, being generally short on explanations for his activities or the supernatural mask, accepts his offer.  And he cuts a rakish, charming figure at the poker table.  Brereton's cover illustration gets the swagger right, but his devil-may-care stare down the barrels of three pistols misses Lincoln's sly charm.  Instead, newly bearded Lincoln, posing as Vernon Wells in his grey suit and open-collar black shirt, wins the table and the chips with his good looks and his borrowed poker skills.  The twist comes at the table:  "Father" Tommy isn't much of a priest at all, but a con man who's been turning confessional secrets into revenue for forty years, and Lincoln's just the latest of his marks.  So, Lincoln turns him over.

In the issue's denouement, and a scene which sets a fraught tone for the miniseries' final chapter, John returns to Atlanta from Memphis to find his sister Jenny held captive in his apartment by a man with a painted mask.  John's final thought before taking a baseball bat to the head:  "If he knocks me out, I have no idea who is going to wake up" (Dream Thief #4, p. 22).  Nitz has developed several threads in his story, none more prominent than the letter from John's father and Jenny's possible knowledge of or participation in Claire's murder of Cordero, which haven't yet been resolved, and as a consequence there's a lot he needs to address in the final act, but the density of story in Dream Thief has remained high.  Here's hoping Nitz's closing chapter is as excellent as his first.