Hyde Street #13 // Review
Clarissa has arrived at the office of Mr. X-Ray. He’s quite nonchalant about it even though she’s rarely found in his cluttered, little office. She says that something wicked has arrived on the street they both inhabit. That’s nothing new. What IS new is the fact that the new arrival just happens to be Mr. X-Ray’s daughter. Things get a bit more complicated in Hyde Street #13. Writer Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis continue a sprawling supernatural horror series with inker Danny Miki and colorist Brad Anderson. The plot thickens in another interesting journey into horror with a cleverly iconic ensemble of characters.
Mr. X-Ray is quite casual about the revelation regarding his daughter. He’s been around on Hyde Street for long enough to know that things aren’t always what they appear. For all he knows, the apparent appearance of his daughter might be the work of the twisted scorekeeper who brings them all to live on the street. Clarissa thinks that it might be something else. She thinks that it might involved the Butcher of Hyde Street. Mr. X-Ray doesn’t know anything about that particular individual. He’s about to find out just how much he has to learn...
Johns lowers a great deal of backstory into the narrative with the full introduction of the current major villain. It helps round out some of the history of the street while also delivering a great deal of buildup towards the climax of the current storyline. What on the surface? Seems like just a lot of exposition actually has a whole lot going on with respect to the overall theme of the series and a lot of what makes it so appealing. It's actually quite a lot going on with the script in this issue that it doesn't necessarily meet the surface. And it's a lot of fun to engage with.
Reis and company our lesson with the task of delivering a hell of a lot of backstory. And so there have to be a lot of individual panels that essentially serve illustrations to what is being described in the script. They don't always match up perfectly. But it does create kind of an interesting contrast to me Clarissa;s understanding of history in the specifics of what it would've actually been like. It's an interesting contrast. It's subtle, but it's definitely there. And it may not be entirely intended, but it is a lot of fun to analyze the discrepancy between what show and what's described in her narrative.
The fundamental mystery of the street impression remains even though there's a bit a lot of backstory delivered about it. And there's a very clever eye towards exactly where the mysteries lie on the street. Johns is doing a very good job of casting light in select places in order to amplify the mystery of what's going on. And at the center of it all there's a lot of people who are really suffering. And about the heart of this series. But there is the mystery beyond it all. And that ends up being a lot of fun to think about.
