Here come the Men in Black….
- The presidential race progresses as Arcadia takes on the Democratic primary and the general election.
- But political drama takes a back seat to the conspiracy thriller side of the book in this volume.
- As a result, it doesn’t always feel like Arcadia has a lot of agency over what goes on in the story.
- Kelly, Brusco, Loughridge, and company keep the shadowy, anxious visuals going here, and they continue to suit the book well.
I enjoy Saucer Country, but I wish we got more of the political side of the story. Seeing Arcadia as a passenger in her own story raises questions about her agency as a main character—and while this volume spends little time on the violation of her alien encounter, that idea never feels resolved. I hope that the next arc addresses some of these elements—as long as Cornell returns to them, I can understand taking the time to focus on other characters and ideas given the relatively compressed timeline he’s working on. If you enjoyed the first volume, I think you’ll continue to enjoy the book; but I also wouldn’t blame anyone for waiting to find out how the series handles some of its dangling threads before jumping onboard.
Collected in
- Saucer Country, Vol. 2: The Reticulan Candidate (#7-14)
Writer: Paul Cornell | Artists: Ryan Kelly (8-10, 12-14), David Lapham (7), Mirko Colak & Andrea Mutti (11) | Colorists: Giulia Brusco, Lee Loughridge | Letterer: Sal Cipriano | Covers: Ryan Kelly