Boulder regroups, and deals with a tragedy. The limbo period ends as a group heads off to Las Vegas and the Dark Man.

I'm enjoying this series as another version of my second favourite Stephen King story, but I'm not a huge fan of the artist's style. I think I'm just too used to the mini series interpretations of the characters. If Fran doesn't look like Molly Ringwald and Stu doesn't look like Gary Sinese, I'm just not as in to it for some reason. Still a great story though. And Randall Flagg is still terrifying (and one of my all time favourite villains. I love how he represents a greater evil in many forms throughout King's books and especially love what happens in the Dark Tower series).

My Heart

So much heaviness. Even knowing what happens, from having read the book ten years ago, it still casts such a heaviness on my heart. I'm prepared for the final pieces to this story. I'm ready to dive in.

MAN I JUST HATE NADINE'S STORYLINE SO MUCH.

This is where the OG novel really starts to go off the rails for me. I know King was stuck and then had this "revelation" about the bomb, but while it does kickstart the plot again, it doesn't really make a lot of sense regarding what he'd thus far set up. Nick's story in particular just cuts off entirely. (And I forget if this is a problem in the actual book too, but in these graphic adaptions, it also creates a continuity error: in the nasty and unnecessary scene with Julie, they say Nick will have to deal with her again but...he dead. It didn't happen.) Annoying!

But not as annoying as how badly all the women are written in this.

Maybe Aguirre-Sacasa & Co. couldn't actually fix that, but this adaptation could have made the cast less white. It really stands out: they couldn't have at least had someone on the council not a white dude?

Can't wait for the final installment, where four men go out to make a stand (iirc, they barely do anything) while the women wait at home and gestate babies.

Three stars for continuing to do a decent job with far from my favorite King.

This was one of the best volumes thus far. It moved the story along without seeming too rushed.

More awesomeness in the story of The Stand! In this volume, Harold and Nadine get together in more ways than one, but not in that one little way; the committee chooses spies to travel to Vegas; Mother Abigail returns in a coma; the bomb; sadness; the four knights set out to confront The Dark Man in the final Stand!

So much happened in this volume! We've slowly formed this community and begun to really feel for these people and now the shit has really hit the fan. I can't say much without spoiling, but near the end there were a few images that just broke my heart. Maybe more so than when I originally read those "scenes" in the novel.

There is certainly something to be said for the visual medium.