Life is Strange: Tracks review (SPOILER ALERT)

For anyone who hasn't read them yet, here are links to my reviews for the previous arcs of the Life is Strange comic:

• Life is Strange: Dust
  
• Life is Strange: Waves
• Life is Strange: Strings

After several months of waiting, we are back yet again to talk about the latest adventure of Max Caulfield and Chloe Price, featuring Rachel Amber.

Although these 4 new issues are technically parts 13-16 of the series, it was decided that that they would be the opening phase of a "new season" subtitled Partners in Time. According to one article on Titan Comics' official site, the original release date was supposed to be April 15, 2020. When Issue 12 was released, Comixology claimed the release date for the new season had been moved to May 13, 2020. Those dates came and went without anything. Then on June 23, 2020, the author finally gave an update on Twitter:

#lifeisstrange #comic readers: I know I've been asked a bit and can now safely say that yes, titan have confirmed officially that the fourth arc will be starting in October. Apolgies for the unexpected pause. Nobody's ideal choice. The pandemic has hit things badly.

As much as I've been a harsh critic for the past issues, I hope that the author and the rest who are making the comic series are safe and sound during these trying times. Their wellbeing matters.

With the new season delayed, I felt the need to find yet another point of comparison besides the fanfics, my brother's "Super Max" stories, as well as a couple of anime shows and films from Japan. Thus, I went on a little search online for an ongoing comic series decried by its critics as "trash", but still with a loyal following. Something polarizing. My search eventually brought to my attention a popular manga series in Japan called Kanojo, Okarishimasu (known in English as Rent a Girlfriend, also called Kanokari for short). While it's primarily a romantic comedy with no supernatural aspects, it has slice of life elements that also tell a somewhat unconventional coming of age story. One major similarity between it and the comics series is that it has been criticized by some of its readers as having a story that crawls at a snail's pace, if not that of a glacier. That didn't stop the manga from getting an anime adaptation in 2020 and from selling over 5 million copies... and counting.

Kanokari contains several panels that are so meme worthy that I've decided to use them for this review (and possibly future blog posts). And with that out of the way, let's get to the review.... SPOILERS FROM HEREON OUT.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

The first issue (Issue 2.1) opens up with Chloe in some room. Unfortunately the peace of the comic was shattered on the next page when the band showed up. Again. 😱

A pointless conversation with Tammi and Friends ensues, establishing that they in the middle of a trip. It is revealed that Tristan was in the same room as Chloe (on a different bed of course, you pervs) - signaling that the original timeline will be shown in conjunction with the alt timeline. On the next four pages, we return to the alternate reality, with Max, alt Chloe and Rachel hiking. They talk a bit on photography and about enjoying the scenery. Their little quality time is interrupted when cast members of Rachel's upcoming play stumble upon the trio. The play-actors decide to take a photo, when one of them slips off the ledge of a cliff. Max sees this and rewinds to before the fall. We then return to the original timeline, with original Chloe hiking up the same trail where Max walked upon in the alternate reality. Alas, the band tagged along with her. They soon find someone down on a lower ledge - the actor who fell off the cliff in the alt timeline wasn't saved by anyone in this reality. We then see Tristan waking up, trying to figure out what happened while we are treated to a small cameo of Victoria Chase. Max and alt Chloe have a little talk on the next four pages, where Max declares "In Chloe Price I trust. Both of them." The issue ends with Tristan and original Chloe presumably coming up with a plan to get Max back.

Issue 2.2 starts off with our 3 main leads on the van. During their little chat, Max yawns out of the blue, causing Rachel to react. This moment was noteworthy for me due to my brother's initial reaction to this particular panel. My initial reaction to it was that I was feeling exactly like Max - bored and sleepy. My brother drew a different conclusion. For some reason, he interpreted Rachel's reaction as her hitting on Max. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The next page has Tristan trying to show his power to original Chloe, with a little bonding time that gets interrupted when one of the band members tells them it's time continue on with the road trip. Meanwhile, Max and Rachel are in a public restroom changing outfits. And it's not as titillating as it sounds, thanks to the forced perspective of this scene where we only get to see two closed toilet stalls punctuated by speech bubbles. Which is a shame because this conversation was perhaps the best one for this particular issue, as Rachel makes clear that her Chloe is not the original Chloe. Rachel even apologizes for (presumably) giving the impression that she didn't want to accept the truth about Max's relationship with the original Chloe, saying that Max is "the strongest person" she has known. On queue, Max gets out of her stall and hugs Rachel. Now that emotional beat is out of the way, we return to the original timeline, where Chloe, Tristan, and the band are in Tombstone, Arizona. After four pages of mostly filler, we jump back to the alternate reality, to at least three more filler pages. Jumping back to the original timeline, Chloe bumps into Victoria. The pair catch up on things, with Victoria claiming she quit taking photos. The issue's last two pages have a water gun fight happening in both realities. My initial reaction to this part, what should have been a moment of awesome, was of apathy and detachment. Also, Victoria calls it quits after this particular issue.

Issue 2.3 with the original timeline, the band's van stopping in the middle of nowhere due a flat tire. The blue hijab girl takes this time to question Chloe, seeing Tristan as someone suspicious for whatever reason. We jump back to the alternate reality with the trio in a dinner drinking milkshakes. Then Rachel says that her iCarly channel right now is focused on Shakespeare, as if to address one of my nitpicks for the Waves arc. Max makes a comment that "most phones don't exactly cover cross-reality networks". Hmm. Why did she say "most phones"? I'm curious to know what kind of phones exist in the Life is Strange universe that do allow you to send messages to an alternate timeline. Do they happen to need a microwave and a CRT TV to permit cross reality communications? This has to be a Steins;Gate reference, right? But before we expand on the topic of messages being sent across different worldlines, Rachel sees that a customer accidentally dropped something, who is revealed to be one of the characters from Life is Strange 2, the Seth Rogen lookalike. Back in the original timeline, Tristan attempts to use his power again, before being interrupted by blue hijab girl, who brings in him to the venue for the band's upcoming gig. He talks with Chloe, and they realize that since she knows Max best, they can guess where's she's headed. We jump back to the alternate reality, with the trio back on the road during the middle of a rainstorm. The van is forced to a stop as a tree falls onto the road. Then we get a shot of what could have been the best thing in this arc:

For a brief moment I thought the impossible had occurred: were Tammi and Friends finally out of the picture? 😍 Sadly it was not to be, as Max impulsively decided to rewind time in a move I felt was made by the author to troll readers like me who have no love for her pet characters. Ironically, before she does, Chloe and even Tristan raise objections to Max's seemingly selfless act. The issue ends with the accident never taking place and Max alone on the road. 😭

Issue 2.4 kicks off in the alternate reality, to the events just prior to the accident. Rachel and alt Chloe realize Max wasn't around. Max was still at the middle of the road where the accident occurred, worried that her Chloe was killed. She then gets a call from alt Chloe. Meanwhile Tristan wakes up at the back of the band's van, presumably in the original timeline. Fearing that the accident would still occur, he tries to get the attention of his traveling companions, but to no avail. For whatever reason, he could no longer undo his invisibility cloak at will. Back in the alternate reality, Max gets picked up by alt Chloe. However, alt Chloe then has a realization that leads to a dramatic outburst that was rather surprising, given how docile she normally is. Long story short, she didn't like that Max doesn't seem to trust her, that Max uses her powers unilaterally, and erases events without thinking things through. As alt Chloe says, "you don't get to just choose what gets kept and what gets thrown away." Then the next two pages has the band again from the original timeline, ugh. We see blue hijab girl having a strange look on her face when she couldn't find some bag, as if someone had taken away her drug stash or something. The band goes back on the road with original Chloe. They stop upon stumbling onto the tree that feel to the road, where the accident originally happened. Tristan remains invisible, and original Chloe realizes his absence. Then, for reasons that likely will be revealed in the next arc, blue hijab girl notices Tristan and reaches out to him. And this where the Tracks arc ends.

Unnecessary Serialization

One of the biggest problems I have with the comics right now is that its a serialized story. To explain the problem, I'll be quoting a couple of interesting comments I found from two different Star Trek fans:

You can easily skip the worst of the season and still enjoy the rest... And that is the pitfall of serialized storytelling, you’re either all-in or all-out. There’s no diversity in styles and stories since there’s only one story.

TNG season 1 is not great but there around 10 episodes I can watch and enjoy even if none are my favorites. Discovery it’s about 3-4 tops. And yes when everything is so serialized it makes it even harder to pick out the ones you like.

A Gizmodo article titled Serialized Television Has Become a Disease also makes a couple of relevant points:

And that’s the other thing lost with the push to serialization: variety. The connective tissue was the characters we knew and loved. The seasons had a lot of tonal shifts but no one really complained that it wasn’t “realistic.”

Everything is so intertwined that you can’t tease out a single episode that’s fun to watch on its own merits.

Despite Titan Comics declaring that the series is in a "new season" called Partners in Time, what we are getting is merely a direct continuation of the past 12 issues. The same old story is still chugging along. Why wasn't the main dilemma of the series resolved before moving to a new season? It makes me wonder if there's some stipulation for either the writer and/or Titan Comics that if Max and Chloe are finally reunited, do they immediately loose the rights to print out more money with the Life is Strange IP? Is that the real reason why we haven't gotten a completely brand new story? Or is the writer scared that no one will buy the next "season" because she has no hook to entice us into continuing our subscription? If it was due to this final supposition, I'd say that Max and Chloe's presence alone should be good enough to pique my interest.  Call me old fashioned, but I'd prefer if I can read a chapter that feels like it has a self contained beginning, middle & end. Maybe it's a side effect of having The Adventures of Tintin as the only comic series I actually read when I was a kid.

Closing: Max and Chloe will (not) be reunited soon

A few days ago, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. A new administration to herald a new year, another chance to make things right. There are concerns that the new Biden presidency will only bring about "more of the same" from the pre-Trump era. As to whether or not that will be the case ultimately remains to be seen. The same can't be said for the Life is Strange comic series though.

After waiting for nine months, the longest delay for the series thus far, and all we get is this?! 😡 Despite the release date being pushed back three times last year, the delay did not manifest itself through the quality of the writing. It's as if the writer really had an April 2020 release in mind, and did not bother take advantage of the 6 month delay to significantly improve the story. I feel that whatever was finished in time for the April release date was left virtually unchanged. If there were any "improvements" made during those 6 months, they didn't stood out to me at all. The following image can sum up my feelings for this current arc:

The one image I really hope I won't have to use ever again when reviewing future comic issues.

This latest arc overall has that "more of the same" feeling from previous chapters. If you are someone who hasn't batted an eye for the past installments, then good for you. But for others like me who expected far more, it's yet another disappointment. Barely anything truly worthwhile happened. This arc has one major similarity to the Waves chapters: they both feel like filler. It was honestly a chore to get through each new issue and write down what happened. I could barely point out anything interesting during this current arc.

Tristan is (predictably) the only new character trying to move the story forward in any meaningful way. The band is useless as ever, along with the other supporting characters. And yet the author increased their screen time! How much you ask? 41 out of 88 pages. Roughly 46% of the current arc! Yikes! With that in mind, it's no surprise why I was bored while reading these latest installments. The supporting cast are like carbon dioxide in a confined airtight space with limited oxygen, and that oxygen supply was decreased to almost half in this instance. Despite having the same number of pages as previous arcs, the author thought it was a good idea to almost triple down on her new characters. Their side stories at times effectively overshadow and stall the main plot. Whatever "momentum" the series had tends to slow to a crawl whenever they talk for more than half a page. Remember that water gun battle from Issue 2.2? I feel that because it involved characters I had no emotional connection towards, their presence utterly ruined the moment. It was a moment I felt was unearned, and should have been only with the trio, Tristan and Victoria even. Yet the supporting cast had to jump in and spoil the fun. The likes of Warren and Kate were more deserving to partake in that moment, not the largely irrelevant side characters the author created.

With the amount of time that has passed since the release of the Strings arc, I decided to go out of my way by reading a few interviews with the comics' author. In one interview, she commented:

I’d also have to say that introducing new characters into the world has been a thrill. Whenever I see a tweet or a message online mentioning a member of the High Seas or Tristan it really makes me happy. LiS was never a game about two people. The surrounding cast made that first game special for me; a community to immerse in.

In another interview, she says:

Not every new character is going to become a featured role in the story. But for me, they have to be real, even if they only appear briefly.... though the Hamlet cast that Rachel joins is too large for every one of them to become well known to us, I can still tell you their family situations and backstories.... So I really do put a lot of effort into giving every character a full and compelling personality and backstory. They all have very human and real attributes that make them feel real in general.

"Every character" huh? Last time I checked, among the new characters, only Tristan was given a backstory. And no, I don't want to know the backstory of Tammi and Friends, because doing so will simply reduce the presence of Max, Chloe and Rachel. And that's not why I'm here in the first place. When asked "Other than the main ones from the games, what other characters have you had the most fun writing?", her answer was:

Well, Tristan is an obvious choice. But I think my softest spot is for the High Seas crew. I love how, though we’ve only had a small amount of time with them, they each have their own mindset and viewpoint. I enjoy the emotional beats more than anything when I write… they’re what I loved in the game too....

Well, the above quote only confirms what I suspected last year: Tammi and Friends are indeed the writer's pets. Ugh. Realistically speaking, it seems they won't be going away anytime soon. 👎😡😭 But that doesn't mean I won't stop raising my objections against them. If a vocal group of Pricefield shippers can keep on claiming Warren Graham is nothing more than a horny stalker, then I also won't stop on harping on the band until the comic gets back to a more focused storyline that deals solely with Max, Chloe, and Rachel... you know the main attraction for most readers of this story?!

Apparently I wasn't alone with my sentiments for the newer characters. Usually when a discussion about the comics drops online, the band doesn't get much attention. But recently, there have been some concerns raised by readers on the sub-Reddit. One post started out with:

The story seems to be moving at a snail’s pace and it just feels like they’re going to be dragging out the build up to the Max/Chloe reunion for another twelve issues. I also don’t care for the music band that the writer keeps pushing on us either. I remember being really excited when it started but now I’m seriously considering canceling my subscription.

If anything the comics just make me appreciate the games even more. I even miss the ‘bad’ dialogue that everyone hates so much. 

Woah. Someone else finally felt that the uninteresting side characters are being forced upon us?! Shocker. Another fan commented:

There are a few good moments in the comics, but coincidentally every single one of them features only Max and Chloe. Every character and idea original to the comics seems... artificial.

Hell, even one fan who seemed okay with the series had this to say:

I am still very much on board with the story because the share moments between Max and Chloe feel so very much like the game itself. I don't care for the rest of the cast, they are a road block to what I want from that comic.

Ouch.

The current state of the comics has gotten so bad for my brother that he has lost all hope for any future issues. His feelings can summed up by the following image:

You know something has gone horribly wrong if my brother would rather sit through a 12 episode series that's been labeled as "Simp: The Anime" by its detractors instead of enthusiastically reading the latest adventures of Max Caulfield. And it's doubly worse when he's more open to future seasons of said anime as opposed to eagerly anticipating to future issues for this comic series.

There has been little debate whether or not the current pacing is beneficial to the comics' overall quality. One reader commented that:

Hell, by comic standards, things are actually moving along pretty quickly, with the whole 4 issues per arc thing, and us being on our 4th arc. The amount of things that have gone down in 15 issues so far, would typically take 30 or more issues normally, comic-wise.

Now if you ask me, the problem isn't necessarily the number of issues, but the amount of time it took us to get here. As a friendly reminder, the series started on November 14, 2018. The last issue for this current arc was released January 20, 2021. During that time we got a mere 16 issues. Kanokari on the other hand, managed to churn out a whopping 105 chapters during the same timeframe. Also, Kanokari somehow released 47 chapters in 2020 - despite the pandemic. Some will say that this is an unfair comparison, given that the Life is Strange comics have 3-5 people working on them while Kanokari's mangaka has a (slightly) bigger team to help him out. Yes, things are made easier when the artwork is just black and white. But when it comes to the writing, I strongly feel that the Life is Strange comics has yet to surpass Kanokari. While I agree with the notion of "quality over quantity", the quality of the writing in the comics is not simply worth the wait. Yes, Kanokari also has tons of its own problems when it comes to the writing, but at the very least the chapters for the manga are normally released on a weekly basis. Given the quality that the comics has delivered up to now, a 7 day wait per issue is far more bearable when compared to a 30 day wait per issue that automatically goes on hiatus for a couple of months after every 4 issues. Simply put, that time difference sets the wrong expectations or a sense of false hope that 22 colored pages that took about a month to publish will somehow be better than 19 manga pages that took a mere week to produce. While it's very unlikely to happen, Titan Comics needs to get its act together and take a page from the Kanokari publishing team, as they are somehow managing better in this pandemic. When it comes to the number and quality of issues that has been published over the past two years, this panel from Kanokari perfectly illustrates my feelings:

As a final blow to this latest arc, my brother took the initiative to write two brand new "Super Max" stories while waiting for classes to start during this pandemic. The first draft for his last story was finished on December 29, 2018. This time around, he managed to write two more stories, with a total of 240 pages that was completed on August 22, 2020. While I haven't finished yet the second story, the first story he wrote last year felt far superior to the Tracks arc's 88 pages of mostly filler. I'm proud to say that a high school student once again managed to deliver both quantity and quality with his own fanfic and outdo paid professionals.

So, should you get the Tracks arc? For anyone that didn't like the direction the comics has headed into, my answer is a resounding no. You can skip them, and you'll barely miss anything important. I can only recommend this in good faith to anyone still feeling good about all the previous chapters. Even then, I do not recommend anyone buying these new issues at full price.

As usual, not everyone was pleased with these new chapters. As indicated by the below quotes I found on the sub-Reddit from different fans:

I think they have some amazing emotional beats, but that ultimately the world-building additions and character choices of Issue #4 have damaged the entire product and it can't ever really get right again unless or until we have Max and her OG Chloe together again in the same universe.

I'm not a fan of OCs and the last 3 arcs have them in abundance, so while I've read them, I haven't enjoyed them. I don't really care about what is happening to Pixie and Tristan on an emotional level...

As a hardcore Baer and Pricefielder, I find them really bad. Many liked them tho. Maybe instead of buying them completely blind, try to get some info about the plot (and Rachel's character) first; you may avoid getting heavily disappointed. They are not canon btw, they're licensed fan fiction. Personally I suggest you to read LiS fan fictions on archiveofourown.org instead, lots of good stuff.

Page 29 of issue 2.4 says that the next issue is expected to arrive sometime in March 2021. However, the next issue's Comixology page claims that the release date is not March, but July 7, 2021. So what is it really? But a bigger concern for me is that this upcoming issue is currently priced at $5.99. 😲 👎 WHAT!!! Why???!!! Since the series began, a new issue costs $3.99 upon release. Now Comixology is claiming that the upcoming chapter is going to have a price hike of $2? Yes, while $2 isn't much in the grand scheme of things, it is excessive considering the quality we've gotten for the past 16 issues. 😡 Will the newest installment be twice the length of a normal chapter? Is this a "temporary" price tag until the final amount is set in stone? And why do I have a bad feeling that the wait and price tag won't be worth it in the end? I seriously hope that they stick to the March release date. That way I won't be as disappointed yet again.

The tedium I experienced while reading these latest issues feels like a straw that broke the camel's back. I won't be expecting that the author will turn things around substantially enough to win me over in future installments. I feel very confident that what we have right now is the best we'll get from this point onwards. I'd love to be proven wrong. I'll still be reading the next issues, but don't expect me to even recommend them halfheartedly if I see no significant improvement. I'll still keep my subscription, if only to make any negativity feel genuine as opposed to some freeloader hopping on the hate bandwagon. Someone has to keep this series in check, and no amount of Max and Chloe alone time can turn off my brain to any problems the comics will still have. Square Enix ought to take away exclusive rights from the Titan Publishing Group to publish Life is Strange material, and grant access to publishers in its native land. Given that Japan already has a niche market filled with established authors who have written far superior stories of "teenagers dealing with supernatural phenomenon", I'm surprised that this has not happened yet. The authors of works such as Erased, Kokoro Connect, and the oddly named Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai are creative talent I'd trust the franchise with instead of renewing ties with the comics' creative team. Hell, even throw in the writer of A Silent Voice while we're at it. If you love reading, those four titles are far better options than the comics to get your Life is Strange fix (assuming you don't want to read fan fiction for some reason).

Life is Strange: Strings review (SPOILER ALERT)

A new year, and a new set of comic issues published by Titan Comics to critique once more. Our partners in time Max Caulfield, Chloe Price and Rachel Amber are back to grace Life is Strange fans with their presence.

Preamble: Why so harsh?

Before heading into the review itself, allow me to give everyone the background behind my critical perception of this comic series.

First, I use the game itself as a benchmark. Namely from a writing, storytelling, character, and emotional perspective. Yes, the game has notable flaws... the big one being that accursed ending which demanded two mutually exclusive choices that are both morally inferior to an obvious third option of saving everyone that exists primarily because the game developers wanted to teach players "a lesson." Against all odds though, Life is Strange managed to resonate with me on the same level of a truly great game such as (to name a few) the Mass Effect Trilogy, The Witcher trilogy, Bungie's Halo Trilogy, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins. Thus, I find it difficult to lower my standards for a paid product claiming to be a continuation to one of my favorite games of all time.

Secondly, fan fiction has given yet another milestone to compare the comics with; the latest one I've read is The Sense of Me. With how emotionally impactful the game turned out to be, a sizable number of fans have taken upon themselves to devote time and effort in the creation of their own stories. That passion has translated into (at least) hundreds of fan fics across the web. Now I don't want anyone to get the impression that all Life is Strange fan fics are all great works of literature. In fact, the writing quality of some works are no better than the comic series. But its worth remembering that all of those were made for free by fans presumably in their spare time, and weren't hired by a publisher to write those stories in the first place.

A third milestone I use are my younger brother's "Super Max" stories. As mentioned in my Waves review, a 17 year old managed to write 322 pages worth of material in the span of four months while still in high school. What probably makes this worse for the comic series is that the foundation of the "Super Max" stories is an idea that he and I thought of as a joke at first. Think of an unconventional concept like Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, and the main characters were Max and Chloe (or their proxies at least). Then imagine if that ridiculous concept suddenly had compelling drama with better side characters, minimal filler and believable moments. Surely a stupid idea such as a Batman v Superman ripoff that took place in the Life is Strange universe has no chance being far superior to the comics, right? I hate to break it to you, but my younger brother has turned a stupid idea into something more worthwhile than what the comic series has to offer. One way I can compare it is how the release version of Battlefield V proved to be less compelling and enjoyable than an anime series featuring high school girls using authentic looking World War II tanks. It's that bad.

Speaking of anime, certain films and shows became my fourth and final milestone. In the years after my first Life is Strange playthrough, I've been on a quest to find stories remotely similar, from video games to films. Oddly enough, it's Japanese anime - a subculture that I personally thought three years ago that had nothing appealing to me - that has offered the largest number of "high school slice-of-life dramas" featuring supernatural powers. At the moment, my personal favorites are:

• Your Name.
• A Silent Voice
• Erased
• Kokoro Connect
• The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
• Weathering with You

This is not to say that any those works are perfect either, as each of them have shortcomings that have been documented by viewers on sites such as My Anime List. (And yes, the so called "Best Picture of 2019" is no better than any of them.) However, after watching all the aforementioned shows and films, it was tough to judge the comics series on a lower bar than the standards I've used to enjoy its anime competitors.

Not everyone who has read the comics finds them mediocre. When I visit community sites such as the series' subreddit, I still see fans who are of a much more enthusiastic opinion of the comics, with a notable few that can write up to five hundred - if not a thousand - words of praise on one issue alone! As I don't know what standards they are using, I'm perplexed at their optimism. While its understandable that a lot of Life is Strange fans are yearning for another Max and Chloe adventure, that longing shouldn't be an excuse to turn a blind eye to any problems or shortcomings that the comic series currently has. It would be interesting to confirm if the folks praising the comics have yet to read any of the recommended fan fics that have been brought up time and again in the Life is Strange fan base. Personally, I don't think anyone who has read the best what the fanbase has to offer would be singing high praises to a paid product of 88 pages that takes four months per arc to finish. As one fan on Reddit finally pointed out what I've been saying in my previous comic reviews:

I feel like there's a few dozen fanfics that do it a hundred times better for free. If your bank is hurting why not read those instead? Hundreds of hours of content.

The comics were just meh for me definitely not worth going in debt over. I didn't mind volumes 1-4, but the rest wasn't that good. They take only about an hour to go through all 10 of them.

Unfortunately for the Life is Strange comics, they don't exist in a vacuum. They were released 3 years too late. They were published long after dozens of fans got a head start over the writer. There are a lot of alternatives that don't have an admission price of $3.99 per chapter readily available for anyone with an internet connection to read. Right now, as a Life is Strange fan I feel like a Star Wars fan who is well aware of the best material from the Expanded Universe and is underwhelmed with the "canon" stories that Disney and Lucasfilm churns out (and I am indeed that Star Wars fan at this point in time).

Okay, with all that out of the way, time to get to the actual review. SPOILERS FROM HERON OUT.

Bombshell

When I first saw the starting page of Issue 9, I had this bad feeling it foreshadowed the overall quality of the Strings arc... and it wasn't encouraging:

Five panels of the exact same shot?! Was this from a school project that was completed a day before the deadline?

The above screenshot isn't a joke - it's the actual opening page of the 9th issue of this comic series! Now when I first read the issue on Comixology, I was using guided view... which gave the impression that there were only 3 identical panels one after another. Turns out there were two more I didn't notice! I don't know about you, but this page feels like a last minute job that was made in this manner to ensure that Issue 9 would meet the 22 page quota. Drawing is not the easiest job to do, but I usually don't expect this kind of "copy and paste" from professionals who charge you for their work. What could have alleviated this page's main problem was for the artist to render shots of the scene from different angles or perspectives... assuming there was still enough time to render those before the deadline. When this issue was first released, one fan wrote, "This third arc is off to a great start."😐...😂🤣😅 While this fan meant to sum up the issue as a whole, I wouldn't call something I want to hold in high regard with 5 panels of repetition "a great start."

Now what's going on in these "scenes" is that Max finally lets the rest of Mystery Incorporated™ on her deep, dark secret... which is why for five panels straight the other characters couldn't move or seemingly breathe. If I hadn't known any better, I probably would have assumed that Max got a new ability and was able to freeze time. Once Max is done spilling the beans, the comic finally gets the ball rolling. The next five pages are - based on the "standards" set solely by the previous 8 issues - kind of touching. It can be summed by Max saying, "wherever my Chloe is in this world, I swear that I'll find her again. No matter what." I also like that Max wants to take up responsibility for her past mistakes. If only the previous issues weren't of uneven quality, this part could have been heartbreaking... in a good way. The nitpick I have in these five pages would be when Max says "life throws us impossible choices and I'm facing one every single day I'm here." Say what?? What "impossible choices" are those exactly? Based on the Waves arc, the only "impossible choice" that Max had to deal with was whether or not she would use her rewind powers once again to save a life. Was Max confronted with other life or death situations besides the ending of Issue 7? If so, this was the first time the comic series brings up this dilemma. Hmm...

After this reveal, there's a short scene where Tristan spouts scientific technobabble to try explaining the "multiple realities colliding" concept. The exposition reminded Max and Chloe of Warren no less. The two then begin to reminisce of their peers in Blackwell Academy. Seeing this, Tristan remarks, "It looks like you two are on the same page... But I think I'm in a different book. No idea who any of these people are." These lines are the best Tristan has said in the whole series thus far. Namely because he acknowledges who he really is and his place in the story. And it seems to quell any possibility of him being a love interest for Max.

However not all is well with everyone, as Max revealed that Rachel was dead from the original timeline. This causes Rachel to sulk at the cafe introduced in the Waves arc. And, to my dismay, the High Seas band are reintroduced into the story.... 🤬 Ugh. One of the band members, a green haired dude, tries to justify his existence in the story by letting Rachel know she's an inspirational figure, and that he prefers living in his current life right now. Like magic, Rachel's gloominess is instantly cured, complete with her saying, "I hope someday you understand how amazing what you just said was." 🙄 Max and Chloe then arrive on the scene to save us from pointless character interactions, with issue ending showing Tristan at the beach.

Explaining a plot contrivance mystery

Issue 10 opens up with five pages showing Chloe's big surprise for Rachel - a camper van for a tour at the East Coast. The next set of pages deal with Max and Tristan at beach - and thankfully it wasn't an "anime beach episode" kind of plot. So the two metahumans are trying to find a way to reopen the Transect for Max to get back to her original reality. Max then tells Tristan that "the door back feels locked to me." Okay... In the game, Max can jump from one timeline to another by looking into photographs. However, we never get to see Max attempting to actually jump back into the original timeline during the entire course of the Waves arc. Besides being told, how are readers supposed to know for sure that the Transect was locked? What caused it in the first place? Anyway, Tristan theorizes that the manifestation of his abilities is what caused Max to be pulled into her current reality. Hmm. I could have sworn back in Issue 5, Max ended up in the alternate timeline because she "looked for the brightest light" in the Transect. Now the current issue wants us to believe she arrived at her current timeline because some kid turned invisible, and not because she choose this timeline? This is getting kinda confusing. Max tells Tristan, "I miss my Chloe. But what I've experienced here is precious too. I'm not going to rewind it. Besides... my Chloe would kill me on sight if I let another person die for her. I'm done with making those choices. I want to get home, sure, but I want to use what I've got to build and heal... not destroy." Now that sounds like the Max I know!

The next page is dedicated to Rachel getting an award for her iCarly stunt in the last arc. In the next four pages, we get to see Mystery Incorporated™ on the roof of Chloe's workplace. During their conversation, Max snatches Chloe's beanie by rewinding time, thus making it appear that the hat teleported onto Max's head. As proven by the next two issues, Max's rewind doesn't appear to trigger some sort of apocalyptic disaster that devastates Los Angeles. Later in the day, Rachel asks Max about her original timeline counterpart - the one who suffered a tragic demise. Max reassures Rachel, stating that she lived a different life, "the destination reached after an infinite number of unseen forks in the road."

The issue then decides to take a detour by forcing Chloe to interact with yet another member of the High Seas band! Ugh... The band member, a guy with orange hair, feels that he has known Chloe for a long time by meeting in another life or reality. The issue ends with Tristan on the beach once more, except this time he was somehow able to invoke an apparition of Chloe... the one who Max left behind in the original timeline.

Katawaredoki

The first 3 pages of Issue 11 are, without a doubt in my mind, the best part of the entire Strings arc. We see Max lying down at the shoreline, contemplating if time "is a healer" or a filter that "helps us to forget how much we were hurting." She concedes that, "I don't want to forget my mistakes. But the farther I am from them, the more powerful that filter." We then find out that she was talking to Chloe -  the original one - this whole time. Max ponders as to why that despite the Storm "saving" her best friend's life, she can't "be happy about that" fact. Chloe answers with her best lines of this current arc, saying, "Because you're a good person, Max Caulfield. Because you care about more than just our lives. And I wouldn't love you so much if you didn't. Regret isn't a negative. Wishing to do better isn't bad. And if you let go of that regret, if you forget about consequence, then what are you? Who are you?" To that, Max says, "Still me. But, maybe less sad?" "That's not how it works Max," says Chloe. Then the two have a "I've missed you so much" moment. Then this part happens:

After three pages of heartbreaking emotion (compared to the usual stuff the past issues have thrown), we find out that it was all a dream! 😟 Max is awakened by Chloe, and the duo have a cute little chat before Max has to meet up with Tristan.

Next, we get to see Rachel at a table read of Hamlet. Its here that one of those involved in the play makes a comment that character of Ophelia performed a "more pivotal role in death" than in life. Seemingly haunted by the fact her original timeline counterpart is dead, Rachel claims that people only see Ophelia as a tragic figure because they "know what's coming." Once the table read is done, the actor for the Hamlet role asks Rachel if he can ask Chloe out on a date. "She's my girlfriend," Rachel bluntly replies. Meanwhile, Chloe is at her job when she is approached by yet another member of the High Seas band. Sigh. Not. Again. The band member - a girl with a blue hijab - sort of breaks the fourth wall by saying "Well, timing is kinda my forte." Ugh...

After three pages of pointless filler, we see Max at the beach with Tristan. Except this time, she can see the apparition of "original Chloe". Max tries to communicate with "original Chloe", but the latter doesn't respond and turns away. Max pleads "Turn back now!" Meanwhile, Rachel catches up with Chloe, who gets a heads up about the Hamlet actor. The blue hijab girl tries to make herself relevant by asking the difficulty of working with the guy. Rachel drops a few comments on the guy's ego and haircut. Chloe suddenly gets a headache. Blue hijab girl offers to call 911, but Rachel declines help, saying "We'll be fine." This finally gets rid of blue hijab girl from the scene! 👍 Back at the beach, Max is unable to catch "original Chloe's" attention. She turns back and sees Tristan's nose bleeding. Tristan tells her to "keep going!" Fearing the negative consequences of her actions, Max orders Tristan to stop summoning the apparition. Max still wants to find a way to reunite with "original Chloe", but "Not at anyone's expense." The issue ends with Max realizing that "original Chloe" is also searching for her.

Forever Friends

The final installment of the arc, Issue 12, begins with Mystery Incorporated™ gathered at the beach once more, except during the nighttime... with candles for some reason. Okay. We get to see flashbacks of the previous days, starting one wherein Max and Tristan plan their next move. Max hesitates at first, claiming the last attempt nearly killed Tristan & hurt Chloe in the process. Tristan reassures her that they are both fine. Tristan reveals that he somehow found out how to open the way into the Transect. Max feels that it ain't the right time yet. Tristan offers his help, even if it means accompanying Max into the Transect. Max finally agrees to his plan.

The next scenes involve Max and Rachel at the beach. Rachel tells Max to not simply take for granted the years spent in the current timeline/reality. Max comforts her, saying "You're so much to me more than a girl in a missing poster. You're my friend. And I'm taking that wherever I go." Now Max can't leave the current timeline/reality without spending time with Chloe. In a landmark occasion for the comic, we finally get to see Max taking a picture in the story! A Polaroid selfie with Chloe, no less. After taking the picture, Max suddenly brings up a little history tidbit involving the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, who Max claims also took selfies. The vain part of me wants to believe this was a little "fan service" for a history enthusiast like myself to cut the comics some slack. Max then gives the photo to Chloe as a keepsake. The duo ponder a bit on a few coincidences encountered in the previous arc like the sculpture Chloe crafted, called the Storm. Chloe speculates that its because of  "the same crazy connection that" binds them together.

After ten pages of saying farewell, we go back to the present day. Max finds her way into the Transect... except it ain't the mysterious white void from Issue 4. The color of the location turned into an ominous blood red with broken purple shards depicting other timelines. Moments later, Tristan suddenly finds himself inside the Transect alongside Max.

Good thing no one stole Max's clothes this time around. Whew...

The two walk a bit in the strange, alien space. Tristan feels that he's not supposed to be in the Transect. On queue, he starts to "disintegrate"... and the place conveniently starts falling apart. Tristan finds himself back in the real world, but immediately goes back to the Transect. He catches up with Max in order to get her out. They see a shard with "original Chloe" on it, and run towards it. Tristan vanishes upon reaching the shard. Max tries to pass through, but couldn't make her way out. The only explanation I can think of is that she failed to hold onto Tristan, the one person who can open "doors" at the Transect. For a moment, Max looks poignantly at the "original Chloe" shard, saying "I was never in control, was I...? I was always dust. There's an odd peace in that. Maybe this is how it was always meant to be." In the nick of time, Max gets pulled out by Chloe back into the real world.

The next day, Max lays down her theory on what's going on: the apparition of "original Chloe" was not in the same area where they first saw her, but at a different place. Okay? Max remembers that "original Chloe" was wearing a High Seas band t-shirt, so she gets the group's tour list. She assumes that the first stop on the tour, a place called La Jolla in California, is their best bet to find "original Chloe". Thus, Max, Chloe and Rachel get to go on a road trip. Lastly, we get to see "original Chloe" in some restaurant writing a letter, when she is approached by an unseen individual (I'm betting its Tristan). It's here where the Strings arc comes to a close.

Closing Thoughts

In my review for the Waves arc, I promised that "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." Well, looks like I've lost that bet. My subscription will remain... for now. Why? Because there was at least one slight improvement over the Waves arc - the comics' characterization of Max. In the first 8 issues, Max's characterization was woefully incoherent with what was presented in the game. To misquote a fellow Star Wars fan, "I don't need Max to be a saint. I just didn't buy the comics' depiction of her because of the sloppy way it was written. The author made her do a few actions that are inconsistent with the game in order to serve the comics' plot." It's only in this latest arc where Max felt somewhat more consistent with the original game's characterization. I even emphasized certain lines from her to support this notion. When compared to the Waves arc, it felt like there was a little bit more going on now, thanks to the Max and Tristan team up. Other than that though...

One of the biggest criticisms I've had for the previous issues is still present in this current arc: the band are glorified dead weight. Whereas Tristan at least helps advance the plot forward (and has even acknowledged his place in the story), the band still adds nothing consequential or significant to the story. They serve no long term purpose other than to say "Max and Chloe have new friends!" Should they be dropped, the main story line wouldn't be negatively impacted by their absence. Proof? All the past issues where they aren't present. The Strings arc only affirms a suspicion I've held since the beginning: Tammi and Friends are the writer's pet characters. If they weren't, why haven't they been dropped already?! Instead of doing the smart thing by maintaining the focus solely on Mystery Incorporated™, the writer decided to instead double down on the band's appearances in the Strings arc! [Groan...] Approximately 15 pages - almost a single issue's worth of pages! - are dedicated to sidetracking the main story just so that Rachel or Chloe gets to interact with one of band members, in a blatant attempt to make these new characters "relevant." It was a move that reeked of desperation - to force upon readers a group of characters that no one asked for, characters that the general audiences don't give damn.

The High Seas Band in a nutshell

I find it very telling that the positive comments I've seen about the comics barely mention the band, if at all. Readers showed up for Max and Chloe, not these pointless side characters that the writer desperately wants people to perceive as better and more memorable than the likes of Samantha Myers from Before the Storm. I'm sorry to say this, but if the band were dropped completely from the story, they won't be missed.

In my reviews for the previous arcs, I've always commented on how short each comic issue was. So, I decided to do a little digging by comparing with other video game comic tie-ins. One of the most notable publishers would be Dark Horse Comics. Each comic issue they publish is typically around 20 or so pages... except that once they've started an ongoing, serialized story, they don't take breaks that last more than a month. Take for example the Mass Effect: Foundation comic series. That story line lasted for 13 issues, and was launched on July 24, 2013. Guess when did it end? July 23, 2014, one year after the first issue was published! And Dark Horse ensured that there was one issue per month. Conversely, the Life is Strange comics series started on November 14, 2018. The current "season" ended on January 15, 2020. In between that time, roughly four months had passed without a single issue being published. Had Titan Comics kept a schedule similar to what Dark Horse requires of its products, we should have gotten at least 14 issues for the Life is Strange comics by now. I also commented that with the current quality we are getting, Titan Comics ought find someway so that readers can get a new issue on a bi-weekly basis. After doing my homework, that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. And with how the author managed to "stretch" Max's current predicament, I'm taking back my complaint of "more pages per issue." Addressing that complaint will be pointless if those additional pages won't feature relevant or stirring Max, Chloe, and Rachel moments, and instead be yet another "LOOK AT US! WE'RE IMPORTANT!" segment starring Tammi and Friends again. Heck, give Tristan something to do, so long as it keeps the plot going. Looking back on the arc as a whole, I feel that because of how the story was executed, it needlessly dragged out the ultimate point - which was to show the first attempt of getting Max back home. Based the material we got in the end, I feel that the Waves and Strings arcs ought to have been combined and condensed into 4 tightly woven issues instead of the current 8 they were spread out on.

So, do I recommend the Strings arc? If you got this far, I'd side with it over the Waves arc. But that ain't saying much. It has its moments, but all that is surrounded by a mostly average, plodding story that feels hollow. As always, if you are planning to buy this latest arc, get them at a discounted price.

With all the meandering present in the comics, it has left some readers feeling confused. One fan on Reddit posted the following:

Can we just take a second to talk about the comics? What the hell are they? They seem...decently written with the weirdest premise.... So much random stuff happens, it kinda feels like [a] fanfic and there's a guy called Tris? And he's able to just kind of disappear from the world? And he might be why Max is here?? I have never seen a franchise continue a somewhat loose plot point, only to have it create major implications. Like Max can just jump into realities, Rachel AND Chloe are alive, there's another powered guy and who knows what else. It all just seems super bizarre.

The top comment in response to this fan's post was:

It was intended to be a one-shot that ended after 4 issues. After it became a surprise hit (it's one of Titan's best selling titles) [the author] had to retcon stuff to keep it going. I think she's doing a pretty good job getting us there.

🙃 "Pretty good job" is a phrase that I would agree with if the goal was to drag out a story that overstayed its welcome. Conversely, buried among the replies to the post was this comment by another Reddit user:

[The comic was] well-received [not] because it captured the audience with its great characters and plot, nor because it was particularly well-made.... People are desperate for Max and Chloe action, and therefore [don't] care much for quality and whether the story is, in fact, good or not. As long as it fits the most basic desire it is deemed as good.

Finally, someone else said what I feel is the simplest explanation why some fans have glossed over the comics' flaws and made hyperbolic claims per issue.

About a month ago, Reddit user BeMoreChillFan wrote on the game's subreddit a post that I wasn't expecting at all, but one that I felt was long overdue: The Life is Strange Comic: A Horrible Misfire and a Slap in the Face. Finally, someone else wrote a detailed indictment on the series! Clocking in at a whooping 2,986 words, this post is a more... colorful critique of the series. For the sake of time, I'll highlight the pertinent excerpts:

What we thought would be a story about Max and Chloe healing from the Storm became a very badly written, in my opinion, fanfiction-tier [alternate universe] where Rachel is alive and perfect and never actually did anything horrible behind Chloe's back. I still hold my theory that [the author] is a person who played Before the Storm first, and she hated Max so much and loved Rachel so much that it kind of spills over into the comic.

A common praise is that [the author] captures the characters perfectly, and she only really has to write Max now because LA!Rachel and Chloe are both OCs essentially. They are a perfect sterile version of what people want Amberprice to be and not what the relationship actually was. And in a bubble, if you wanna make an Amberprice comic. Fine. Have it be set in the years between BtS and LiS. But to put it here in this comic, marketed as a continuation of Max and Chloe's story is not good.

I know a lot of people love this comic. I don't really understand why, but I know they do. I think a lot of it though, from what I've seen, is related to Rachel and Amberprice.... to have that in a comic like this and the way it was marketed for over a year via previews seems bad. Originally, on her Twitter, [the author] said that issue four was going to be the last appearance of the original Chloe and that there would be no more references to her and that the LA!World would basically be the new permanent LiS timeline. I think she got some blowback for that decision from Square, because we know... the new plotline is trying to get Max home to her original reality.

Back to the plot and the writing. It's not good. A lot of it seems like BtS level artificial drama. By that I mean the comic creates drama for the sake of drama. It's not for the good of the story, it's just to create drama.... Like I said prior, there is a lot of Max self-hatred in this comic. It happens every issue and it reeks of creating artificial drama for Max.... hasn't Max suffered enough? Was the week from hell in Life is Strange not good enough, that we need an entire comic dedicated to Max suffering for one reason or another?

The last issue that we have right now is a trip of Max and Tris using a combination of their powers to go through the transect to get home. Unfortunately, because [the author] doesn't wanna give up on Amberprice yet, the entire issue gets nothing done because Max ends up back in LA!World and Tris gets to the original world. We do get to see that Chloe isn't really handling Max being gone well in the original world, but she's slowly just waiting for Max to come home. But she's not because Max is back in [the author]'s [alternate] world. It's frustrating because the entire plot of this arc was Max trying to go home, and to have her back in LA!World ends up REEKING of artificial drama... [The author] wants even more time for Rachel and Chloe, so we have to keep sticking with the idea that Max can't go home.

You might be wondering why I care. You might be wondering why I give a shit about this comic I don't really like and is non-canon, yet I keep reading it. And it's because, in a perfect world, I'd like to read about Max and Chloe's healing adventures and growing closer as time marches on. Within twelve issues, we've achieved NOTHING.... The comic... devolves into having to introduce new concepts every issue in order to make that idea of Max being sucked into a new world make sense. We're stuck [in LA!World] but we know [the author] is gonna introduce more and more and more new concepts to prolong how long Max is stuck here. And I just wanna know if Max gets back to Chloe. That's why I keep reading.

This comic really only appeals to those hardcore Amberprice fans, in my opinion. There's nothing to really enjoy about this comic from the perspective of someone who likes Pricefield as well as someone who just wants a decent Life is Strange story. [The author] keeps inventing new things to make the comic work instead of just staying within the constraints of the original game. And that's not good storytelling. When you change things too much you risk alienating the people who originally wanted to buy the comic. People who just played Life is Strange in passing will buy and read it and not see much wrong with it, but from the perspective of someone who loves Life is Strange a lot it goes against a lot of what we did in the first game. 

[The comics series] doesn't feel like the continuation of Max and Chloe's story, which is my major problem. It seems more like Amberprice fanfiction. A continuation of Rachel and Chloe's adventures with Max in as a second thought in the background with an emo kid.... And I'm not a fan of that because of what I originally hoped... the comic is the only currently releasing piece of Life is Strange media to look forward to. No releases of art books or scores to look forward to. Just more Rachel. And you can like Rachel, fine, but a lot of people wanted to see how Max and Chloe took the storm. And that's not what we got.

As the last paragraph pointed out, there's nothing else besides the comics being offered to Life is Strange fans. Because of this one simple fact, I was forced to search other works of media that had at least some of the best elements the original game had offered. That search lead me to the likes of Your Name. to Weathering with You.

The Strings arc was first revealed via Twitter on August 3, 2019, and the announcement claimed the story would involve "an epic road trip." For whatever reason, things didn't go according to plan, as the "epic road trip" story will be depicted in the next issue when its released on May 13, 2020, with a "new season" called Partners in Time. This means that this upcoming issue will be designated as "Issue 1", despite being technically the 13th issue of the series. And this isn't a completely different story, as its the direct continuation of what has been laid out in the Strings arc. Now I feel that this move revealed a problem with the series that I wasn't able to realize until now - all the arcs post Dust are merely pieces intended for one giant, specific puzzle: reuniting Max with "original Chloe." Whats so bad about this? The way I see it, this affects each individual arc by depriving them of interesting, self-contained stories. The series is heavily reliant on serialization. In theory, a serialized story format isn't a bad thing on its own. In practice, though, how the author has utilized it thus far is to merely prolong the payoff where our real Partners in Time are reunited at last, so they can finally have their "Can I ask you, your name?" moment. Just to remind everyone, this was a corner that the author wrote the story into. Despite what has been said of the Marvel movies, they aren't as tightly woven as some people claim they are. You can still enjoy the Captain America films without watching Iron Man's movies. The Life is Strange comics aren't like that. Its difficult to enjoy each individual arc or issue in isolation. One arc feels like a mere stepping stone onto the next arc. They are all subservient to the end goal, a goal that the author has no apparent intentions of concluding anytime soon. To do that, the author is going to stall by whatever means necessary, be it filler moments with her pet characters or some plot contrivance that feels artificial. Ideally, we might get a genuine page-turner of a plot, but I don't have much confidence that we'll end up getting that in the next arc. Quite frankly, it begs several questions: is the writer incapable or unwilling of making an interesting story that does not involve Max searching for Chloe? Can't our Partners in Time be reunited immediately in the next issue so that our characters can move on to do other things? Can't future issues have a simple but engaging story where Max, Chloe and Rachel hang out, doing their own thing and no sci-fi/time travel gobbledygook? If that's too boring for casual readers, why not let them do something like, I dunno, investigate some unsolved crimes or murders? Kind of like in Erased? A series such as Kokoro Connect reminds me that its possible to utilize an arc structure without having those arcs being mere extensions of the story's very first arc.

Honestly, I can't wait for the comics to break free from its overdependence on the whole "Max must get to Chloe" story. Then we can hopefully have something truly worthwhile, a story I can enjoy as much as the likes of A Silent Voice and the rest. Until then, I'll be waiting for the first arc of the new "Partners in Time" season to finish to see if what has changed for the better.

Life is Strange: Waves review (SPOILER ALERT)

After waiting for months, the final issue for Life is Strange: Waves has been released. Now I can finally sit back and enjoy reading a riveting tale featuring Max Caulfield and her best friend Chloe Price in yet another exciting adventure! Yay!

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:

"Oh yes, we are time fliers..."

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.

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:

 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:

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.

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.