November Vol. 4: The Mess We're In
Matt Fraction, writer; Elsa Charratier, artist; Matt Hollingsworth, colorist; Kurt Ankeny, letterer
Image Comics, 2021
Another finale, this time to a series of graphic novellas rather than an ongoing series. When they are collected they will form a 320 page graphic novel. But it does seem that the periodical publication served a useful purpose in establishing the dramatic structure, with the first three quarters each focusing on one of the three women the story revolves around (and ending in a cliffhanger). The final installment finally brings all three women together.
Everything has come to a head. The two captives and the nosey police dispatcher are together in the evidence storage building where they had been held. They're alone, but probably not for long: bad cops and the criminals they have been covering for are bound to converge there any minute. To survive the women must work together, which looks dicey at first. But in the end they all rise to the occasion, more or less. During the climax it is especially effective to see the same scene from different character's perspectives.
Having become attached to these characters, it was nice to see three Postscripts showing how things turned out for them in the months after the big night. Only one of them could be described as a happy ending, but this is crime noir, after all. Satisfying to see more realistic fates for the other two. Anyone who has waited for the series to be collected is in for a good read.
Replies
My mother would read a story or see a movie and want to know what happens to the characters later. Generally, I would tell her that she should make up whatever she thinks would or should happen because it wasn't a series.
When I read John Irving's The World According to Garp I was tickled that at the end of Garp's story we were (succinctly) told everything that happened to all of the characters, even a just-born baby, until their dying day.
I've forgotten about the ending to The World According to Garp! I must have read it in the mid 1980s, as far as I can recall. These Postscripts are more about the immediate future: a year or less.