Time And the God
Casey's a late bloomer. This issue is a blend of continuing the current arc, and finally giving Casey a character focus issue after skipping her in the character focus arc. Scenes of her in the present...... well, the present for her which is the past... Scenes of her in the present are juxtaposed amazingly alongside scenes from her in the past. The story is constantly transitioning between the two with the raw efficiency of Archer, replacing the comedic wordplay with tension building wordplay. It creates such a natural flow that you'd swear it was just telling one straightforward story in sequential order. But if you did that you'd be confused, and you'll be smart enough to know not to do that because even with the smooth flow, its never unclear which time period is currently being shown.
Miss Hodge demonstrates some surprising powers that made me worried at first that they ran the edge of jumping the shark, but as it slowly progresses, it reveals some surprising details about the ways Casey's life has been shaped throughout her life. And while a line from Miss Hodge to Casey initially bothered me, upon retrospect it actually justifies a lot of what Zoe said last issue that I had hated. And suddenly, though it pains me so much to think it, I don't like Casey as much as I used to. Now I'm not saying this issue made me dislike her, I still think she's a fantastic character I just.... I think I'm losing myself in Hunter. Casey's not as relatable as she seemed, and I've lost the tenuous connection I had with her.
See, I once dated a girl like Casey. We'd been friends for a few years, and I'd had a crush on her since the day we met, but I took longer than Hunter to ask her out, though my actual attempt was no less awkward even though it ended in success. But at the time we had been sent to different high schools after being at the same middle school, and she was a severe overachiever, so we rarely had the time to go on actual dates. Eventually we broke up, but remained friends. And a few years later, things happened, and I found out she never really liked me as much as I liked her, she just knew I liked her and essentially was just testing out a relationship to see if it worked between us. While it doesn't quite click with what Zoe said, we were still friends due to similar likes and personalities and not pity, it does seem like the actual relationship was essentially based on pity to some degree. And so that's Casey to me now....... And her name was Cate. One less letter, and one letter changed to the next one in the alphabet. Whoa.... that's heavy.
But then the real kicker comes at the end. A scene from the beginning of the 12th issue that raised so much alarms of speculation. A lot of which I felt was a little overreacted I'm going to be honest. It was the rest of the 12th issue that really got to me, but I digress. This issue links back to that in a way so shocking your heart will literally skip a beat, the world will drown in utter silence, your eyes will widen like never before; every ounce of your being will focus to the maximum, even though you'll only be skimming the scene that will blow your mind.
In Conclusion: 5/5
Last issue drove me stark raving made, because here I thought we'd get some alternation. Two issues in a row of Hunter, Jun, and Zoe. It seemed almost inconceivable in this series that jumped around more regularly. But this issue NEEDED to come AFTER Zoe's big speech. And I'll admit my ravenous lust for this issue had reach a second boiling point after being an issue later than I expected. But that doesn't change the sheer genius of this series. Literally every comic I've ever read always pales in comparison to how much this series grips my soul as I read it. It is the greatest comic series I have read in my life, and is likely to stay that way until I die and beyond.
