Advance Review: Christopher Chaos #8

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #8 picks up where we left off, delving deeper into Adam Frankenstein's tragic past. While the previous issue added some really interesting layers of depth to the character, this week’s story struggles to maintain the emotional weight of Adam’s origins even though there was an effort to continue adding complexity.

There were elements of what could have been, had Tate Brombal opted to focus on a single aspect. In one very quick scene, Adam comes face-to-face with a hateful town whose inhabitants are immediately scared of his presence and run him out of town. That immediate rejection, paired with the pieces around his master’s desire to destroy him, could have been explored further to drive home the fact that Adam’s always been hunted and had his back to the wall. In another part of the story, Adam observes a family of less-than-modest means, yet they are full of love for one another. Again, this could have been explored further to make a statement about what Adam yearns for now, yet it was presented as more of a show-don’t-tell type of scene.

Soo Lee's artistic talents, so brilliantly displayed in the prior issue, are somewhat underutilized here. The more static panel layouts don't offer Lee the same opportunities to showcase her strengths in dynamic storytelling and emotional illustration as more detailed spreads do. Patricio Delpeche’s color palette was also quite muted compared to what we’re used to from Miquel Muerto, removing one of the book’s more distinct features.

Overall, this two-part story may have been more impactful if condensed into a single, oversized issue as a bridge between the book’s main story arcs. Stretching it across two issues created a drag on the narrative momentum and ultimately left me feeling a bit unfulfilled after such a long gap.

Rating: 6/10