Zeb Larson reviews Nailbiter #10…
After several issues of inactivity, Nailbiter has finally started moving again this issue. It’s not even that we get some big juicy revelations in this issue, although there are a few small ones that should help us keep moving forward. After the slowness of the last three issues, I’m glad the series is back on track. I’ve done my best to couch and hide the spoilers in my review, but I will be discussing some of the themes and ideas in the story. Read on at your own discretion.
Buckaroo’s citizens are driven into a collective panic once they realize that the school bus has gone missing. Finch and Crane have to work to track down the location of the bus, which they get with some help from the local pastor. The school children are sort of incidental in all of this, though, as Finch accidentally discovers far more sinister appearing in the lake. It also appears that the bus driver wasn’t completely off of his rocker, either, as one of the children is harboring a pretty dark secret. All of this has finally gotten to Finch, and he decides to use his expertise in getting answers the way he knows best. Naturally, this is going to be a bad thing for somebody in Buckaroo.
Finch’s determination to do things his way (which is to say, like a professional interrogator) is an interesting twist in the story. The question all along in this series has been how Buckaroo has managed to create so many twisted serial killers. What is it about the town that corrupts everybody that comes through? Finch digging out his old bag of tools, which were previously involved in an accidental death, doesn’t necessarily feel like a good thing. It feels more like a decent person starting to crawl around in the muck to get answers, and it’s unclear if he’s even going to find those. Is Buckaroo starting to get to him? It presents an interesting wrinkle in the story.
The dark behavior of the children in the school bus also sheds some interesting light on Buckaroo. Up until now, it hasn’t really been clear whether the town is corrupting people, if it’s all a weird coincidence, or if it’s a conspiracy directed by a group of people to some other end. Whatever it is, it can pretty clearly warp children. Williamson states in the back matter that the answer regarding the building in the lake isn’t what we expect (which is good-a human sacrifice, blood god angle would cheapen the originality of the story), and we don’t really have many hard answers here. Still, it’s a step in a direction, and that is a good thing.
Issue #11 ought to be a good one when we see what’s happening with Finch and whether he can learn anything doing it his way. The series is back on track.
Zeb Larson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E&v=qqtW2LRPtQY&feature=player_embedded
Originally published February 4, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
