Local Man #6: The Dry Season

Here at Comic Watch, we reviewed the first arc of Local Man with rampant acclaim, and it seems that our glowing coverage of the series isn’t stopping there. Local Man #6 marks the beginning of the title’s second arc entitled ‘Dry Season’, creatively shifting the series away from pure superhero storytelling in a way that feels natural for both Jack and his hometown of Farmington.

The issue opens at Inga’s diner, with the people of Farmington reacting to Jack’s return in a solid comedic fashion that perfectly sets the tone of this issue as something on the lighter side. This flows into Jack himself entering the diner to meet with Inga, only for his father to interrupt with his patented grumpiness. It’s a true-to-form slice-of-life scene that draws the reader back into the world of Local Man comfortably. As quickly as it came, the comfort of familiar characters and humor is shattered by the firing of a single bullet.

An armed shooter opens fire within Inga’s diner, with Jack’s presence being the driving factor behind his irrationality. The shooter in question was there demanding the truth over the death of Camo Crusader, spewing an almost stereotypical amount of Q-Anon talking points that would’ve been way too on the nose if not saved by the role in which that stereotypical nonsense has in the overall story. This moment personifies what ‘Dry Season’ is all about, falling in line with the series’ overall approach to distilling and exploring the culture of middle America down into extensively well-written genre fiction.

Conspiracy, secrets, and all things hidden can be found in every corner of this story, alongside the shattering effects they have on people. This is at the absolute heart of this story, and the team does a great job in tying this tonal tempo change into the characters’ emotional arcs, allowing the plot to develop naturally from their reactions to the events at Inga’s.

There’s a hierarchy of importance to the three plotlines picked up and/or started in this arc. The cliffhanger seen at the end of issue #5 continues to be a major part of this arc but doesn’t overtake it. There’s a soft sense of escalation given to it as it hangs overhead in the shadows, giving room for the arc’s main plot. Jack’s plot ties directly into the themes of Midwestern conspiracy as he tackles a small-town, Stephen King-esque murder mystery that intertwines with threats both hippie and supernatural. The third is a smaller and almost entirely thematic subplot for Officer Kopecki that hides a lot of punch in the small panels this subplot is developed in.