Colder Volume 3: Toss the Bones

Story-wise, this felt less like a conclusion to a saga/trilogy and more like a re-tread of much of the first volume. The characters are far flatter - Reece's character has been subsumed into a support unit for Declan. Declan does one stupid, impulsive, nonsensical action after another that don't actually match his motivations and directly contradict some of his actions in book 1. Declan's history, hinted at in book 2, is never expanded on. The rules of the universe are still vague and seemingly change to be whatever get out of jail free card is needed. Jack feels like an offbrand Joker.

Book 2 had slightly better and more varied portrays of insanity, but we're back to "Insanity is babbling non-sequiturs all the time," in this volume. One show more instance is a female-coded character bemoaning the loss of her penis before birth, which really reads like a dig at transfolks and people with gender dysphoria, punching down even more than the books already were.

Regarding the ending: I actually really liked the "Trying to kill Nimble Jack was never the right approach - we need to cure him" ending. It made far more sense and felt less like a cop-out than the ending of the first book, and tied into Declan and Reece's work and values. The final page twist at the end, that Declan has been possessed by Jack and Reece is a madwoman feeding the mentally-ill to him, felt trite and cheap. It was adding "OR IS IT?!? DUN DUN DUN" to the endcard of a movie, and seemed to clash with the tone set earlier. Personally, I think if the goal was to have the ending take a dark, suspenseful turn after the happily-ever-after moment, do this: Declan wins. He cures Jack, his temp hits zero, and doesn't die. Instead, he loses his powers and becomes for all intents and purposes a normal man. Huzzah, he and Reece can finally have a normal life together, with some ambiguity about how they might cope now that the 'magic' is out of the equation. Then, pull back and show the hungry world, still full of predators, still hunting human minds and spirits, implying that the difference now Declan and Reece are blind and defenseless as anyone else, and there is no one to stand in their way. That's foreboding as fuck. But that's just my hot take.

The only reason why this gets 2 and not 1 stars is that the art continued to be gorgeous. The artist deserved a better script. show less