Review – The Nice House On The Lake #2
Review – The Nice House On The Lake #2
Written by: James Tynion IV
Art by: Alvaro Martinez Bueno
Colours by: Jordie Bellaire
Letters by: Andworld Design
Published by: DC Black Label
Available: 7th July 2021
Variant Covers: Anand Radhakrishnan
Synopsis: Book 2
After the life-changing events of the previous issue, the guests at the nice house on the lake must decide their next steps—but there’s not exactly perfect agreement about the situation. Who among them is ready to walk out the door? And who is content to simply…float?
Writer: James Tynion IV
Tynion has created a really nice house, it has the worlds’ best bagels, the shower pressure is just right and the whole world’s skin is melting off apart from those in the house.
Book 2 focuses on the group’s reaction to the night before, where Norah attacked Walter and his meat tornado melted her arm off.
Rick, the musician, introduces the issue similar to Ryan last time, but their memories of Walter are starkly different Rick reminisces about Walter’s insecurity one night and reassures him he will always love him. Throughout the issue, he still speaks of Walter with tenderness and love that foreshadows the coming issues and problems.
The group is aimlessly wandering around smoking, eating and checking out all the details and rooms within the house. Ryan is beginning to see a pattern in the symbols each person has been given and a horrific trip to the statue shows each of the group the horror of each of their homes. They also encounter an invisible wall around the house cutting them off from the world.
Rick, however, is visited by Walter with the old vampire mirror trick showing the man and the monster to the readers while Rick only sees his friend.
Tynion is asking the question if the world ended but you were in the perfect place, with everything you needed would it be enough? Most apocalyptic survivors would be envious of the house and the gifts Walter has left, but even a gilded cage is still a cage.
Ryan and Rick are starting to look like leaders of two factions within the group dynamic, Rick needing the world to carry on regardless and Ryan looking for answers and escape.
Art by: Alvaro Martinez Bueno & Jordie Bellaire
Bueno and Bellaire use every trick in the book to make this issue feel claustrophobic while within an expansive house. The scenes with Walter and his misty, meaty body still make my skin crawl. It’s ancient, alien but you cannot look away.
Bellaire’s colouring brings every scene and panel to life with the mirror shower scene between Walter and Rick standing out within the whole book.
The most unsettling thing about Walter is his lack of eyes, his glasses create a mirror with nothing behind them.
Overall Thoughts
Tynions’ ability to create real characters that we somehow know from limited text brings this alive and the subtle use of mediums like cameras, scripts and artwork layer the book. The artist and colouring team of Bellaire and Bueno bring every panel alive with a feeling of dread and awe.
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