Sunday, October 31, 2010

What I Read - Sleeper: Season Two #12

#12 Heroes and Villains - In the end I am not disappointed. Brubaker didn't take the easy way out. It isn't a happy Hollywood-style ending. Carver gets what he wants at a price, or does he? He's out of the game but in a "permanent vegetative state". I think he would have preferred death but that wasn't his number one priority so maybe he is or he would be okay with how things turned out for him.

It's tough for me to argue with Carver's logic. He saw everything he knew and loved destroyed. What was left for him? What way out was there for him, other than removing the alien artifact from his body? The day he accepted the mission from Lynch he found himself on a path that couldn't lead anywhere good. As he got deeper and deeper into Tao's organization he found increasingly less that he liked about himself or his life.

His love for a sociopathic killer, Miss Misery, is an expression of how he felt. Embracing her was akin to embracing the life he was forced to lead as a sleeper agent. He learned to let his inner sociopath be his outward self but ultimately that was extremely damaging. Unable to be the person he wanted and needed to be he became suicidal.

Lynch is a manipulator. There's no question in my mind about that fact, but what was he thinking (or was he) when he sent Carver to infiltrate Tao's organization?

I love this series. Worth the read for most people but some patience is needed because the early chapters of both seasons can be a bit frustrating. Hopefully, one day I will find the time and read it again.

Sleeper: Season Two by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips

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