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Days Missing: Kestus #4 – Review

The Days Missing timeline is catching up with our own as its next stop is January 1, 2000 where someone made Y2K actually happen! That’s where our story begins. With panic and chaos in the street as people’s fears come true and technology has seized to work. The Steward rushes to the top of a building to stop an EMP bomb from going off, but instead catches the blast to his chest. He does what he does best and folds time in on itself giving him another day to try and fix the world.

The Steward’s mind drifts to another time when such a bomb would have been created by Kestus. He thinks back to 1944 and the creation of the first atom bomb. The Steward and Kestus have a heated argument as she is trying to prevent the creation of the bomb and the Steward is allowing it to be created and controlled by the Americans. After folding time the Steward finds himself still standing on the roof of the explosion a mere day before the fake Y2K is unleashed. Kestus is standing behind him waiting for him, wondering why it took him so long to show up. The Steward is shocked as to how she found him so quickly. She explains that he gives off a very unique power signature when he uses his abilities that allows for her to track him.

Days Missing Kestus 4 CoverShe climbs up to the Y2K bomb and takes it down to deactivate it. She begins working on it as the two talk. The Steward is surprised by her sudden Altruism, but for Kestus it’s been 30 years since they last saw each other and in their last encounter the Steward finally got through to her with his actions. She still doesn’t see humans the same way the Steward does, but instead of moving against them she has decided to help them. After defusing the bomb the two make their way to Kestus’ operation of business. As she touches him, the Stewards mind thinks back on another time. The year is 1914 and Archduke Ferdinand has just been shot. The Steward can’t believe what has just been lost for humanity. Kestus is waiting in the wings to brag of her victory, but even she doesn’t know the war that is waiting for her.

This is a very good issue and it’s funny to see how far technology has progressed when you actually stop to think about it. Kestus is using the top of the line tech including her cell phone. When she whips her phone out and takes a picture the Stewards acts like he just had his soul stolen he so amazed. If you think about it in 2000 everyone was rocking that Nokia phone with the game Snake on it. The restraint that the writing and art took to make sure people weren’t just walking down the streets with amazing touch screen phones is just great because usually that's where they drop the ball.

As for the story in general this is almost the saddest love story of all time. Kestus is literally able to remember everyday of her life and count the days in-between seeing the Steward. They’re the only two like each other on the planet and they can’t even be together for more than a day at a time. Because of that I’m really interested to see what happens with their relationship. Does it move forward anymore? Will they ever be able to see each other for more than a folded day? Phil Hester does a great job of hooking you on the characters as much as he does the story. These two characters meet only by chance encounters for the most part and yet they have facinating and philosophical debates each time they meet.

The art proves itself yet again as David Marquez not only draws one decade, but two more as well. He captures the creation of the atomic bomb and the start of World War I perfectly while staying true to the era the current story is set in. What I enjoy the most about his art for the book is that he not only has to draw everything perfectly normal with everything working out in the end, but he also has to draw the same situation at its worst. So he could draw the same scene twice, with the only difference being that one of them will be utterly destroyed. It’s a pretty unique thing to draw in comics who usually end up being one or the other. That and his explosions and chaos are amazing.

If you’re still not picking up this book you’re just cheating yourself at this point. The mixture of action, science and human nature of it all, is amazing to read and look at. Both creators are great storytellers and work well together. After Days Missing concludes I hope to see them on future projects together.

Overall Score – 9.5/10

 

Rating
9.5

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