The Unwritten #17 – Review

by Mike Carey (writer), Peter Gross (layouts), Ryan Kelly (finishes), Chris Chuckry & Jeanne McGee (colors), and Todd Klein (letters)

The Story: Lizzie/Jane’s past is revealed and Savoy and Tom make a daring rescue effort in a special “pick-a-story” issue.

What’s Good: Is have to give props to Carey and Gross for having the balls to even attempt a “choose-your-own-adventure” issue.  The experience of reading this comic is quite unlike anything I’ve experienced reading comics, the layouts are unique, and it’s all clearly the result of an extremely labor intensive creative effort.

Format aside, the story that Carey tells here is a good one, equally divided between exploring some of the series’ early moments in greater detail while also surprisingly trucking the plot forward.   The scenes detailing Lizzie’s past do a fantastic job of illuminating events from the Unwritten’s first issues that were clouded in mystery and completely puzzling at the time.  Now, Carey clarifies them, while also showing how much sense it all makes knowing what we know now, something that’s quite pleasant when recalling how mystifying these happenings were back when we read them.

Meanwhile, the present day events deliver a satisfying feel of the gang “coming together” as character relationships are stronger than ever.  Tom and Lizzie’s relationship has never felt more meaningful, even if it ends up being solidified by a fiction, while Savoy and Tom’s banter livens it all up.  An interesting parallel between these scenes and those from a Tommy Taylor novel also give everything a heavier and more significant tone.