Except... it ain't as exhilarating as it could have been.
When I last wrote about Life is Strange, I talked about the series within the context of the 2016 blockbuster anime film Your Name. In that post, I expressed my fears about this upcoming comic arc heading towards an unnecessary direction. A new character, along with a plot that promised Max dealing with "harsh realities and surprising revelations" wasn't exactly the most encouraging selling point in a new story that implicates The Girl Who Can Rewind Time. Regardless, my curiosity still got the better of me, and here I am, still talking about a series that I expressed skepticism ever since wrapping up the Dust arc months ago.
Now this post won't be structured like the Dust review I wrote that had a little summary of each issue. No, I'm doing things a little differently this time around, for reasons that I'll make abundantly clear later on. So, how does this latest arc fare?
Chemistry
I'll say it upfront: issue five (the first issue in the arc) was the best one among the four.
It was the best one simply because it focused on the character dynamic Max had with Chloe and a no longer dead Rachel Amber. Their interactions in this first issue felt mostly natural and didn't feel cringy or out of place. While slow paced for some, if you are a fan of these characters such as myself, the pacing in the issue ain't a big deal. What I found surprising is that Max ended up in a timeline where Amberprice is a reality, yet this issue didn't degenerate into a stupid love triangle soap opera. "Chloe belongs to me, and is therefore off limits!" is a point of contention that thankfully doesn't get brought up, and I'll give credit for the writer not going that route. Chloe is alive, Max gets to live with her, Arcadia Bay was never destroyed, and Rachel didn't die of an accidental drug overdose at Nathan Prescott's hands. It's a win win situation, right?
Complications
As the summary for this current arc promised however, not all is well in paradise. While in a cafe, Max encounters strange looking guy in a black jacket, who can't be seen by anyone else besides her.
 |
| It's obvious which art style I'm rooting for in this comparison shot. |
Being nosy in nature, Max wants to know more about this mysterious individual. In issue six, Max sees this guy stealing from a grocery. She tries to stop him. In the process, we get to see the one time so far the comic series got me to chuckle a little bit:
During the chase scene, the comic artist thought it was a cool idea to show Max in this particular pose:
This one panel made me smile as it reminded me of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. For a moment, Max looses track of the guy. During a short interlude, she began to question herself as to the reason why she was brought to this particular timeline (more on this later). But just before Max can ask more questions, the mystery dude reappears. He asks Max why was she following him, and how could she see him. Max thinks she's connected to him somehow, and that his ability to go invisible holds the key as to why she landed in the current timeline. The dude however isn't amused, and tells her to essentially f*ck off and mind her own business. At the end of this second issue however, mystery man changes his mind and tells Max his backstory at the start of issue seven.
During the chase scene, the comic artist thought it was a cool idea to show Max in this particular pose:
 |
| "Oh yes, we are time fliers..." |
Invisible dude has a name: Tristan Tanaka. Whoa, he's Asian?! I thought he looked like the way he is because he had some sort of weird skin pigmentation disease that was caused by his "power". And a little observation: why does he have an alliterative name, like.. I dunno... Taki Tachibana? Anyway, he got his power when his best friend (who the author claims is also Asian but looks Caucasian) was shot by a drug dealer. He tells Max that he has difficulty being invisible when she's around. This prompts a two hour long talk, presumably Max telling him about her rewind power and how she ended up here. With this conversation, Max gains Tristan's trust. She supposedly even gives him an invitation to a party.
Later that day, Tristan decides to loiter outside the party venue. While wandering around, he conveniently finds a bag of food... that had illegal drugs and a gun packed along side. Back at the party, a friend of Rachel got overdosed. Wanting to help, Max steps outside the party to call for 911. And what you know it, a few feet away from her were two drug dealers, one of whom was about to fire a gun a Tristan. Seeing this, Max responds the one way she thought was best: for the first time since the events of the game, she uses her rewind power. Issue seven ends here, by the way.
By rewinding time, Max was able to prevent Tristan from getting shot. However, she gets nabbed by the two drug dealers. She's brought to a secluded place somewhere in LA. Why they did kidnap Max? "Yeah, we weren't sure...", to quote one of the goons. Facepalm! In an apparent last ditch attempt to salvage this current arc by recreating that time when Max being held captive in the Dark Room, the writer had to "pay homage" by ensuring that a guy once again saves Max, our damsel in distress. Oh, by the way, Rachel and Chloe tagged along to so that they can do a live stream of bringing the goons to justice. The goons decide to high tail and run instead. The whole "capture on live video the criminals" aspect feels a bit too cartoony, as one reader on Reddit commented:
Later that day, Tristan decides to loiter outside the party venue. While wandering around, he conveniently finds a bag of food... that had illegal drugs and a gun packed along side. Back at the party, a friend of Rachel got overdosed. Wanting to help, Max steps outside the party to call for 911. And what you know it, a few feet away from her were two drug dealers, one of whom was about to fire a gun a Tristan. Seeing this, Max responds the one way she thought was best: for the first time since the events of the game, she uses her rewind power. Issue seven ends here, by the way.
By rewinding time, Max was able to prevent Tristan from getting shot. However, she gets nabbed by the two drug dealers. She's brought to a secluded place somewhere in LA. Why they did kidnap Max? "Yeah, we weren't sure...", to quote one of the goons. Facepalm! In an apparent last ditch attempt to salvage this current arc by recreating that time when Max being held captive in the Dark Room, the writer had to "pay homage" by ensuring that a guy once again saves Max, our damsel in distress. Oh, by the way, Rachel and Chloe tagged along to so that they can do a live stream of bringing the goons to justice. The goons decide to high tail and run instead. The whole "capture on live video the criminals" aspect feels a bit too cartoony, as one reader on Reddit commented:
It was like something you'd see in an episode of iCarly.Another reader on Reddit had this to say about the whole hostage situation:
It was silly from start to finish: the bag of drugs and a gun left in the middle of a street; the two stooges about to whack people who've "seen it;" the cooperative Max willing to come along with a couple of skeevy guys to a nearby construction site in the middle of the night; and bottoming out at the vlogging being used to deter a violent drug dealer type holding a gun AND ACTUALLY SUCCEEDING instead of getting shot in the face, because power of the internet disarms, you know. (Kids, don't actually try this at home. Instead, ask your invisible friend to steal the gun from that drug bag, because why is it even in there?)So Tristan used his invisibility power to get the jump on the goons and save Max. After being rescued, Max asks Tristan to help her out with something that is "crazy to hope" in succeeding. Tristan goes Batman and swooshes out of the scene. And just when I hoped this arc could end on a bearable note, that accursed bunch called Tammi and Friends shows up again!!! Ugh.... WHY???!!! Anyway, Max tells Rachel that she wants to finally have a candid conversation along with Chloe. The band play their song, with Chloe muttering "Woah... Deja Vu...", thus ending the four issue Waves arc.
Head-scratchers
With the key story points now out of the way, this next segment will focus on several nitpicks I have with other aspects of the story.
- Issue five opens up with a news report that mentions "a sharp rise in local crime figures." Local residents assume that "the newly opened Expo Metro Train Line" helped cause the increase in criminal activity by making the city more accessible to felons from the surrounding counties. However, this crime wave is never brought up again later in the succeeding issues. What could have been the basis for a story that used the backdrop of escalating tensions between city-folk and country-folk was utterly wasted.
- We find out that Rachel has her own online channel called Amber Light Time. So what kind of content does she make? The first time were are re-introduced to Rachel, we see her talking about... her eyeliner. Wait, what? Personally, I would immediately change this so that we could have Rachel give some acting tips or how to be a social climber... something more in line with her reputation back in Arcadia Bay as someone who "is great at everything and highly respected."
- Speaking of being great at everything, Rachel drops a line in issue five where she claims that "It's getting kind of hard to persuade people to hire me." Really now? She's the one character in Life is Strange who has the social and communication skills to effortlessly blend in with others like a human chameleon, yet the comic wants us to believe she has difficulty in getting work.... Yeah right. I don't know about you, but if an introvert like myself can ace interviews for multi-billion dollar international corporations, a bona fide extrovert such as Rachel will have an easier way in than nearly everyone else.
- Since we are still talking about Rachel, before she claims she has difficulty in getting hired, she says that she couldn't go to an audition because "I couldn't get anyone to cover my shift at the diner." Hmm... Not only the vaunted Rachel Amber from Season 1 and Before the Storm wastes time expressing herself to social media what's her eyeliner, has problems in passing job interviews, but also couldn't get work at a better place other than a diner? Well, I feel really sorry for you girl. Because mere mortals such as Taki and Ms. Okudera from Your Name. got better job offers despite both being only part-time employees at a 3-5 star Italian restaurant (little trivia note: that restaurant from the film was indeed based on an actual location in Tokyo, a place called Cafe La Boheme). And both Taki and Ms. Okudera were working students. Seems like Rachel's persuade and charisma stats have been nerfed considerably in this story arc. If we were going to focus on Rachel's job problems, the comic should have better emphasized the fact she quit six jobs recently. I would re-write this little sub-plot to highlight the fact that Rachel is a restless spirit, one that quit six jobs not because she was a terrible employee, but that she simply got bored and couldn't find fulfillment despite earning a good salary. I'm not saying Rachel should be buffed into a Mary Sue, but her character should feel more consistent with her game counterpart.
- Why did Tristan got invisibility powers? The comic implies that he got it because... during the incident with his best friend, all Tristan wanted to do in the end was to leave... so the universe gave him the ability to disappear? Okay then....
- While in this comic arc Tristan ain't the deuteragonist, considering how significant he is in Waves, you'd think they give him more details about his backstory. Now I'm not asking a full-fledged tale like Batman Begins or Casino Royale, but at least a few more lines to better understand his situation. Is he a bigger loner than Max that his only friend in the world was the guy who got shot during that drug deal in issue 3? Couldn't he find new people to befriend after that life changing incident?
- How did Tristan knew where Max was being held hostage? Did he use his invisibility power to track her down and somehow had enough time to race back to tell Chloe and Rachel about their best friend's predicament? So did this mean that the "secluded place" was conveniently a stone's throw away from the party's venue? And why did the drug dealers who had the balls to kidnap Max suddenly chickened out when Rachel was recording the incident? To quote a fan on Reddit:
a live stream... makes the seemingly hardcore criminals/drug dealers become completely crippled. As if the trigger-happy one wouldn't have used his gun or the smarter of the two wouldn't have tried to threaten his way out of the situation? As if guys like that would just believe Rachel's word of that she's live streaming and have 1.2 million people watching? And as if, even if they did believe her, they wouldn't react violently and try to stop her?
- And what was the overall point of Tristan? To act as a deus ex machina? To be a point of comparison so that Max can say "I'm not as miserable as I thought I was. There's always someone who is far worse off than I am. So I should be thankful with what I have and make the most out of it"?
Identity Crisis
Before wrapping up this review, I must discuss the elephant in the room: how did Max fare in this new arc? Quite frankly, it's a mixed bag.
On the one hand, we have the Everyday Hero who decided without hesitation to save two individuals (Tristan and Rachel's friend) from certain death by rewinding time.
On the other hand however, we have a Max who, for whatever reason, has spots all over her arms. Did she develop some skin disease off screen? When it came to Max's job, the author was as vague as the previous arc. The best we got is that Max "finished up edits on [a] theatre reel" and is "planning layouts for the new menu" at the cafe where she hangs out. So exciting.... Plus, Max says coffee is now her "sweet, sweet lifeblood" and has an addiction to it for some reason. In Season 1, the one drink I recall Max even having any "affection" for was tea, and it was one of the things that brought her and Kate Marsh together. And it's rather odd that we never get to see her writing in her journal (does she still even have one?) or doing photography work. Hell, Tyler Down from 13 Reasons Why gets more photography work done than Comic Max.
On top of all that, despite the seemingly ideal setup this current timeline has going for, "Max is struggling to find out where she belongs... She feels cut adrift from the world-changing choices she made in the past." How conflicted is she? Well, there's this little gem from the first issue:
On the one hand, we have the Everyday Hero who decided without hesitation to save two individuals (Tristan and Rachel's friend) from certain death by rewinding time.
On the other hand however, we have a Max who, for whatever reason, has spots all over her arms. Did she develop some skin disease off screen? When it came to Max's job, the author was as vague as the previous arc. The best we got is that Max "finished up edits on [a] theatre reel" and is "planning layouts for the new menu" at the cafe where she hangs out. So exciting.... Plus, Max says coffee is now her "sweet, sweet lifeblood" and has an addiction to it for some reason. In Season 1, the one drink I recall Max even having any "affection" for was tea, and it was one of the things that brought her and Kate Marsh together. And it's rather odd that we never get to see her writing in her journal (does she still even have one?) or doing photography work. Hell, Tyler Down from 13 Reasons Why gets more photography work done than Comic Max.
On top of all that, despite the seemingly ideal setup this current timeline has going for, "Max is struggling to find out where she belongs... She feels cut adrift from the world-changing choices she made in the past." How conflicted is she? Well, there's this little gem from the first issue:
 |
| Yes Max, you don't have even have the right to consider such bullshit. |
When I first read these lines, I didn't give much thought to them. But upon re-reading them for this review, my heart sank. These lines indicate that Max has a yearning for the timeline where all her other friends are dead. OH. MY. GOD. Did she really thought of this possibility???!!! If so... then...
One fan on Reddit tried to look at the bright side of things in the scene where Max drops these lines by saying:
The entire issue wants you to realize one thing. Max is sad and we should be sad too. And it works. When she is alone in her room, admitting that she would rather be in her own timeline where all of them are dead. She still feels guilty, but it makes no sense, because she is in a timeline where she doesn't see the consequences. That she also wants her Chloe, the one she built a life with, the one she learned to live with the guilt is something I loved. Not every Chloe is the same. Max wants her Chloe. I even think Max has no feelings for this Chloe, she says something like, she misses Chloe everyday, even if she is technically right in front of her. That she also says, she can deal with loneliness, she just wants to know if her Chloe is happy, is really heartbreaking.I would be heartbroken too, if it wasn't for the character breaking execution. If this happened in Your Name., we would see Taki having the desire to leave Mitusha dead because her memories of him and the body swapping were never erased. The lines only help the notion that Max is in a co-dependent relationship. Or even a yandere in the making: "Somebody who is sweet and kind at first glance. But when it comes to their love (crush) they will act obsessive and violent." I can totally understand that Max misses "her Chloe", but for Max to want a reality where her so called "friends" are dead feels totally out of character (unless said friends are the High Seas, which I can totally get behind). If it wasn't for her actions later on in the arc, I really would have lost it here. If all of this is somehow connected with the strange spots on her arms, well, she really needs to see a doctor. Max blabbering such nonsense makes it all the more important that Chloe and Rachel talks to her, because when's she with them, she typically acts like her normal self and they can keep her in check. As I've implied in several posts: in the aftermath of Season 1, I believe that Max Caulfield should have matured to the point that it would really be out of character if she suddenly acted so self-centered in a story that claims to be post Bae or Bay. Why couldn't she use the Transect to pay a short visit to the Dust timeline again?
After attempting to chase down Tristan during the second issue, Chloe and Rachel try to have a word with Max. "But Max, frustrated by her own inability to tell them EVERYTHING, lashes out." Max doesn't want to tell either of them the truth because... she doesn't want to break what Chloe has here in the current timeline. Uhm. Sounds rather superficial if you ask me. Was this the "harsh reality" that the synopsis promised? Instead of trusting her Partner in Time, Max first reveals the truth about herself in this timeline to a homeless boy who she only met recently & can go invisible. She was fortunate that Tristan wasn't some supervillain in disguise. But after all that she experienced in the first game, you'd think that she wouldn't easily share such a world shattering secret to just anyone. There's a reason why Max couldn't tell anyone else about her rewind power besides Chloe and Warren. Not even Kate was privy to that secret. So, the comic wants me to believe that 18 year old Max from the game had more trust in Chloe in the span of five days than her 21 year old comic counterpart that had the privilege of living with her Partner in Time for the past three years?!
When Max was about to tell Tristan her story, she says yet another gem:
If there's one thing my younger brother can agree with Comic Max, it would be the aforementioned lines. Regarding Comic Max's depiction, one Reddit user has this most interesting assessment (an opinion I know my younger brother will wholeheartedly agree with):
This comic series does a fantastic job at... Writing Max as a weak, self pitying. mouse of a character that blames herself for everything under the sun and is full of angst. You know... how Max isn't. "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it. Comic Max will blame herself for it."With all that angst, I find it hard to believe that Max has been hanging around with Chloe and Rachel for 3 years in LA, as a good deal of the angst feels contrived. 3 years? More like 3 months at most. To misquote some lines from my new favorite parody: Comic Max's "words and actions are telling two completely different stories. Like, is she a helpless whiny damsel or is she the more mature Everyday Hero? Can't the comic series just pick one and commit?! Because right now, I'm just not buying either."
Final Thoughts
Titan Comics did it again. They managed to publish yet another letdown of a series.
Of all the characters, it's only Chloe that remained unscathed. Outside of that, nothing much was achieved.
Of all the characters, it's only Chloe that remained unscathed. Outside of that, nothing much was achieved.
They need to ditch the band. NOW. AND PERMANENTLY. They don't add anything important to the story, and only serve as a reminder of this series' SJW pandering. If they were cut out completely, it changes nothing of significance in this current arc. As Chloe herself said in issue five: "Nope. Never heard of 'em."
My other big complaint about the Dust arc is still alive and well in this current storyline: it's way too short. As if that ain't bad enough, Waves has a lot of filler material. It's so full of filler that I couldn't even come up with the energy to describe each issue in detail like I did with the Dust arc. The Dust arc had at least a far more interesting setup than the Waves arc: the timelines are overlapping and we get to see aftermath of the Storm. As much as I liked the conversations between our three main leads, they felt fleeting in the grand scheme of things. For a series that only has 88 pages at most to tell its story, the author sure loves breaking the "law of conservation of detail". As a member of the Writer's Guild of America noted in a blog post:
If a first act forces me to learn something, there’d better be a damn good reason for it. If there isn’t, the useless information crowds out the useful stuff. It punishes the audience for paying attention and almost guarantees that necessary information will get overlooked.The most damning proof that Waves is filler was the arc's overall point. What was it again? Oh yes, it was so that Max can finally muster the courage to tell Chloe and Rachel that she can rewind time and that she came from another timeline. Wow. And it took four issues to get to that point!!!
And I wasn't the only one to have expressed dismay over Waves. Here are some quotes from fans on Reddit:
I bet more than half LiS fanfic are better than this comic. I don't understand what they were thinking while writing the plot, it's boring and it seems that it's not going anywhere at all. Why did they introduce new characters that are totally useless at the start ? Why did they do issue 1 to 4 ? Because it doesn't acheive anything and they just went back to 0... Okay they wanted to introduce the concept or jumping / merging timelime... but 4 issues for this... It can be said that the actual plot just actually started at issue 5, great... I will read them without paying and if they do something actually interesting i will buy them again.
I'd also argue that the writing is bad purely due to the choppiness of the overall story. In particular the irregularity in behaviour and emotional expression from characters.
...That was it? Where is this story even heading towards? ....Will Max ever come back to her timeline or will she stay and hurt herself watching Chloe have a fulfilling relationship with someone else? Will the author suddenly glue her to Tristan? These comics are getting so bad and bland.
This arc is skippable. It started with great potential in the first issue, that's been squandered in an attempt to space out a 2 comic story into a 4 comic story to milk more money instead of giving 4 compelling issues. Disappointed and my expectations were already low given the whole "Max 2" fiasco which has been shown in the current series to be a bunch of bull. It was precisely the Max we thought she was, and the "Max 2" situation was essentially just made to stop the backlash at Issue#4s ending.
This series is a disaster. I hate being hard on anything LiS related, but ever since issue 4 I’ve given up on anything this comic series has put out. It’s badly written fanfiction at best.The overall quality of each issue simply ain't worth the one month gap for the next one to come out. 22 pages, with a good deal of it being filler. If this is the best we are going to expect, why don't they release each issue on a bi-weekly basis instead?!
With how dirt slow each issue is being churned out, you'd think that this was a free fanfic. NOPE. On that note, I want to share a personal nail in the coffin for my assessment of the comic series. In the Dust review, I mentioned my younger brother wrote what I've called the "Super Max" stories. As of December 2018, the total page count he has written so far for those stories is 322. These stories all happen post-Bay, but despite that Max's personality never changed. She's the idealistic Everyday Hero that wants to "better the world around her", but still makes mistakes, and suffers PTSD for sacrificing an entire town (and from at least two more tragic circumstances). In issue four of Dust, Max says:
Somewhere out there, there's-- [a Max who is] really good at saying what she's feeling. She's brave.Personally, I feel that my younger brother's depiction of Max captured the essence of that line, as well as my favorite Christopher Reeve quote:
I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. They are the real heroes, and so are the families and friends who have stood by them.Oh, did I mention that my brother wrote them while he's still in school, during his free time in a span of four months? On top of all the problems I've written down, the fact that a 17 year old full time high school student wrote 322 pages worth of story in his free time that didn't compromise the character of Max Caulfield is where most of my disappointment for these comics stems from.
Overall, this new arc ain't the improvement that I was hoping for. These new issues aren't worth paying full price... again. If you are planning to buy them, get them once the compilation has at least a 50% discount. Some of the free fanfics on AO3 are still leagues ahead of the comics.
The Waves arc ain't the end for the comics series, of course. The Life is Strange twitter made this announcement on August 3, 2019:
MAX, CHLOE, & RACHEL flee the fallout of their decisions – with the help of an epic road trip in Life is Strange #9!Oh no. An "epic" road trip? Wonder how "epic" will this be? Will it be like another "epic" road trip I watched recently involving a brunette girl whose name starts with an "M" and her friends? [Shudders] If the writer doesn't step up her game for the next story arc, I'm officially cancelling my subscription on Comixology, and I'll be reading future issues without paying a single cent.
