Zeb Larson reviews Nailbiter #14…
One of the biggest secrets of the serial killers is revealed!
Well, we finally got some kind of insight about Buckaroo and what keeps creating the serial killers in town. It’s not a big insight, but at least it’s something to go on, and it would be unfair (and ultimately counterproductive) to expect Williamson to give us the full scoop on Buckaroo. Still, the rest of the issue was relatively uninteresting, and some of the smaller elements really strained credulity and believability. This issue was an improvement, but I’m going to need a few more before I’m back on-board with this series. I will be discussing spoilers in this review, so consider yourself forewarned.
Finch and Crane show up back at the Buckaroo Hospital in time to see a lynch mob forming for Warren. The preacher blamed the attack on Carroll on Warren, and Finch and Crane narrowly manage to hustle him into a car and speed off. They still trust him and take him back to the lake with diving equipment and explore the sunken temple. Warren reveals that he’s been there before, but the temple is not an Aztec ruin or anything else. It’s all fake, built to test or torment or simply confuse the residents of the town. Around the same time that it was built, a group of outside serial killers was brought to Buckaroo, though Warren doesn’t know more than that. Alice happens to wander in at this moment, but before she can say much, the Butcher makes his dramatic entrance.
Well, the temple was explained at least, and in a way that makes sense. An ancient temple in Oregon would simply murder credulity. There appears to be something about the search for the origins of the Buckaroo Butchers that drives the searcher insane, which is an interesting twist. I’m as yet unclear as to how the other serial killers in Buckaroo have played a part in this, given that serial killers had popped up in Buckaroo earlier than that if I remember correctly.
Still, it’s not the biggest revelation, especially after all of the wait we’ve had for the last several issues. Leaving questions open is a good thing, because we don’t want to just rush to the end of the mystery. But that’s what Warren was holding out with? It’s a bit anticlimactic. Now we’re back to waiting for Carroll to wake up…right where we were in the sixth issue.
I was also struck by several weird things in the issue. Did Finch and Crane just happen to have three diving suits hanging out in the car? For that matter, given the history between Crane and Warren, why would the angry crowd let her drive away with him? What happens to Alice would feel more meaningful if we’d spent more time with her in this past story arc, but she’s been basically ignored since issue seven. And in any event, there’s no reason to believe the worst has befallen her. Hopefully the lag time to the next revelation will be shorter, or we spend more time on character development in subsequent issues.
Rating: 7/10
Zeb Larson
https://youtu.be/yIuEu1m0p2M?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published July 2, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
