Nocterra #12: Racing Towards Danger With No Brakes and All Guts

Nocterra #12 is another solid chapter in this post-apocalyptic series filled with bombastic ideas and excellent character work. Still, it comes with a certain kind of narrative baggage detrimental to our new narrator.

This issue promises the start of a new arc, ‘No Brakes,’ shifting our main characters once again. Emory is our point-of-view narrator for this arc but shares that spotlight with the unresolved plot from the last turn. This was the same setup for ‘Pedal to the Metal,’ Nocterra’s second storyline. The constant shift in the series’ narrators is a stylistic choice that has worked very well; however, our new arc stalls a bit from the jump with the change to Emory.

The jump from ‘Pedal to the Metal’ and ‘No Brakes’ is so direct that this new arc, besides the shift in narrator, does not stand on its own merits. This is not because Emory is an evil, insufferable, or underwritten character. He’s far from being any of those things, carrying a level of edge that makes for an engaging narrator. As such, it is a tad jarring to flip to Emory as a narrator so quickly, seeing as the plot is simply the next chapter in a storyline the reader would have experienced through Piper’s point of view.

Yet, simultaneously, the narrator swap offers a level of richness quite different from what we’ve had previously with Val and Piper. Emory’s motivations and psychology are much darker and ripe with self-assigned expectations and pressure. It adds to the anxiety of the plot unfolding, even if it does wind up a tad squandered. Narrative problems with this issue stem from Val’s instantaneous (and excellently rendered) return.

Now, her return was chronicled in the Val Special from December of 2022, but there have been no issues between then and now. This would work if it weren’t for the fact that there is no time between her fake-out death in case #11 and her return to the group in issue #12. It is a return that severely undercuts why Emory takes over as both the book’s narrator and the leader of Sundog.

With his older sister gone, he has to step up as the leader. The team says Emory is the team leader despite Val’s return, but the interpersonal drama that would come from Emory having to finish this world-saving quest without her is now lost. While the plot doesn’t have room to breathe, the issue is still not bad.

The plot here is simply gas. Snyder is firing on all cylinders to play the notes needed to reach a satisfying climax. While some plot moments are cliche and expected, they’re well-earned and endearing. These moments are peppered throughout an action-filled story that lives up to the name ‘No Brakes.’

The characters in this issue are constantly on their feet as they slowly run out of time to save the world. The action set pieces are balanced out by small moments that keep the pace moving and reinforce the danger of all the violence occurring. There is never a dull moment in this issue; Snyder is willing to let blockbuster action shine in fascinating ways. Bill’s genetic evolution is an example of this, growing into an even more significant and lousy ass threat.

Tony S. Daniel and Marcelo Maiolo continue to be a visual dream team unlike any other on the stands right now and utilize the lighting-based plot setup in so many fantastic ways, not just throughout the series but in this issue specifically. Hence, the return of Bill: