Dream Thief: Escape #3

written by Jai Nitz
art by Tadd Galusha

John Lincoln now has a uniquely enlightened perspective on his absent, abusive father's condition, one that explains away his erratic behavior, his swings in temperament, his seemingly self-destructive friendship with Nathan Brown-Eagle.  As children of Fischer Ayers—particularly the elder Jenny, who saw their mother's bewildered suffering with greater clarity—it seemed like little more than the neglect of a crappy father.  It seems John's been thinking about those days a little more and with a lot more understanding.

It may be every parent's nightmare that their children will inherit their worst parts, but Ayers' loving anxiety whispered to his young son—"Don't be like me.  Please, God, don't be like me" (Dream Thief: Escape #3: 4)—makes his decision to ultimately abandon his family poignant.  The love is there, but how can you trust yourself around them when you're never sure who and in what murderous rage you're about to become?

Reggie, on the other hand, is to be absolutely trusted.  Dream Thief has always maintained a comic edge, a current of humor and absurdity that buoys the series, but Reggie's take-down—literal "take-down"—of Whiteboy Tim is a highlight, putting his college football skills to good use.  I also love that he has a straightjacket on hand for these kind of situations.

Ah...Whiteboy Tim.  He could easily be nothing more than a joke of a cliché, and he nearly is: a perpetually startled, scrawny loser of a drug dealer in a world of self-important, bullying low-lifes.  But his defense of his sister, knowing there's a high likelihood of it going against him, is sincerely affecting.  It's a revenge detour that derails John, Reggie and Fischer's most immediate objective—killing Ayers' killer Patricio Brown-Eagle—but, to be fair, that's more or less how this Dream Thief thing works.  At the most inconvenient times.  Nearly every time.

Tadd Galusha takes over illustration responsibilities from Greg Smallwood in this issue.  While he's more than adequate to the task—his grasp of Southern architecture and style is truly admirable—he doesn't quite have the command of the characters that Smallwood does.