The Thing: The Next Big Thing

The Thing: The Next Big Thing by Walter Mosley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This collects The Thing #1-6, written by Walter Mosely with Tom Reilly and Jordie Bellaire on art.

First off, I love the art. The color palette is subdued and not overdone like a lot of modern comics and the art has kind of a retro feel. It's a great looking book.

The story is kind of a mess at first but I like where it ultimately ends up. Ben and Alicia break up, Ben winds up using a dating service run by a fairy or something, and winds up doing some poorly explained stuff. I didn't really understand what exactly was going on until over halfway. If I was reading this in singles, I probably would have given up on it.

When Ben's new girlfriend's identity is revealed and someone else shows up, I understood what was going on. Some cosmic stuff happens and everything is set to right.

I didn't have a problem with the actual story but Ben doesn't have a lot of agency in it. Everyone else knows more about what's going on than he does. If you swapped out The Thing and Alicia with another couple, the story probably wouldn't have changed much. I guess I'm trying to say it was a decent story but didn't really feel like a Thing story except that he and Alicia were in it.

I'm still not sure if I articulated my thoughts on this. Good not great? I didn't hate it? It was fine? Three stars. This one is headed to Half Price Books sometime in 2023.

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