I was really curious to read this one again. I knew that I liked the end of it because of what it meant for the rest of the series, but I wasn’t sure how well I’d like the story of Oscar Wilde the third time around. I always kind of resented it because it took up valuable space that could have been advancing the story. Well, I’ve completely rethought that position. Sim has 300 issues to do what he has to with the story, and he knows it. This book wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if it was a couple of issues of Cerebus getting over Jaka’s death (so he thinks). With all these issues, he’s given the character time to realistically get over that trauma. And I’d forgotten how much I liked Doris as a character. Just something about the way that she makes every sentence a question and that little hair flip thing she does. Hey, I don’t know, I’m just telling you my observations here.
So now that I know that having Oscar around wasn’t a terrible idea, how well does it hold up Pretty well. A whole bunch of pretty much forgotten (and, in some cases, useless) characters show up at some point for cameos. Oscar dying was dealt with in minute detail; there was no turning away from any of the unpleasant aspects of someone wasting away. Would I have preferred more Cerebus, more story in this one? Yeah, I guess so. But I’m also along for the ride in this series and am content to let a master experiment a little bit. Now, if he’s telling the story of Dostoevsky in the last twenty issues of the series, that’ll be a different story. Until then, you need these quiet moments to add importance for when all the big stuff happens.
Posted by Kevin 
