DC Round-Up: NICE HOUSE BY THE SEA #1 increases the intrigue

THIS WEEK: The Eisner and Angoulême award-winning team reunites for another installment in the Nice House story, plus reviews of more of this week’s new DC Comics.

Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.

The Nice House by the Sea #1

Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist and Cover: Álvaro Martínez Bueno
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer and Additional Design: AndWorld Design

Once again, I have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok, and flat-out deceived by James Dolan James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire, and AndWorld Design.

I assumed, naively, that this iteration of Nice House… would be a bit of a standalone. Another story of the end of the world, where a few chosen survivors would band together under the watchful eye of some shapeshifting alien. Maybe it’ll connect to the previous one but it’s too soon to tie everything together. This issue begins with that basic premise, although with this volume, we knew that this group would know ahead of time about the end of the world, and were chosen for being the best in their particular fields.

However.

Once again, like the first volume, there’s a twist at the end of this first issue that threatens to upend all of what I thought this series would be, and I’m immediately hooked for the long run. It’s something that I thought might happen sooner or later, but I’m fascinated to see how things go with it happening so early.

As always, Tynion is excellent at his character work. While we don’t get up close and personal with everyone right off the bat, we’re introduced to everyone and get an immediate feel for who they are and what they believe (I am convinced Henry Allen is exactly how Tynion would write Beast of the X-Men). My biggest complaint with the first volume was the all-too-brief time we spent with that cast, so I’m hoping we’ll bounce around a lot more and get a better feel for this group.

Martínez Bueno only continues his march towards world domination, with absolutely stunning lineart and designs. I’m not sure it’s possible for him to get any better, but his style feels even more distinct than it was in the previous volume. Pages are structured in complex ways, with panels that convey a vibe more than any specific situation, but I get more out of this than a straightforward moment-to-moment progression. I’m getting exactly what I want out of this.

Bellaire is a superstar that elevates this team to all-timer levels, with a command over color that speaks perfectly to every setting. The book oscillates between tones at the drop of a dime, but Bellaire has no issue adjusting for those hard switches and striking the perfect balance for each page. The designs and lettering from AndWorld and Martínez Bueno are the icing on the cake, clear and consistent while continuing to stand out from most other books on the stands by sheer slickness.

Whereas the last group of survivors felt as though they cared about each other and the human race as a whole, this is a collection of people who seem to have little interest in society, and are more interested in what they as individuals can gain from the experience. To that, I’m very much looking forward to how the story progresses, especially if it means more drama and in-fighting.

Verdict: BUY

The Round-Up

• I don’t know what I was expecting from a deep dive into the origins of Amanda Waller, but I’m not sure it was what we got in Absolute Power: Origins. John Ridley does a great job of showing us that Waller has always been as motivated as she is, but he sets the story up by immediately fridging her daughter in horrific fashion. I know that her lost family is a key part of Waller’s initial motivation, but I’m not sure this was a part of it. The rest of the story is very well told, with excellent commentary on our fractured political system and the disenfranchisement of Black Americans, but that opening scene sticks with me. Alitha Martinez and Norm Rapmund provide solid lineart, along with colors from Andrew Dalhouse and letters by Steve Wands.
• I’m not sure what to say about Zatanna: Bring Down the House #2 that I didn’t already say in last month’s roundtable discussion, but Mariko Tamaki, Javier Rodríguez, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou once again knock this issue out of the park. The plot starts and stops a bit here, but the team does a good job of oscillating back and forth and giving us some real moments of connection between Zatanna and the mysterious cast of characters that’s so concerned with her life. 

Miss any of our earlier reviews? Check out our full archive!