With the revelation that Love Fights is not an ongoing series but in fact a twelve-issue miniseries, any of my complaints about the length of the story have gone away, and what we're left with is a very long but intricately-planned big story instead of an overly long introductory arc. Silly, I know, but it's a shift in the way I perceive the series. Watson is definitely winding the story up, though, bringing the Jack and Nora relationship to something of a resolution in this very issue and introducing a few surprises that cast everything we've known about the series to date in a new light. This is great for shaking things up and keeping reader interest, but Watson is low-key about some of the revelations, leaving me wondering if I'm reading them right and a little confused on some of the specifics.
The readers have long been in on the secret that Jack learns about this cat this issue, that his motives might not have been so pure all along. However, Watson reveals that there's far more to Guthrie than a simple cat's jealousy, and this was a revelation I wasn't really expecting. I still think there are a few wrinkles in this part of the tale, but regardless, finding out that Guthrie is more deeply involved in the plot rather than just a thorn in the side of the Jack-Nora relationship made for a pretty interesting story in this issue.
I'm not sure, but I think that Watson also revealed something pretty big about the Flamer this issue, namely his secret identity, and that this identity casts doubt on the veracity of all the information we've had about his potential child so far. Watson reveals this in a fairly low-key way, almost as if it was a piece of information we already had, and so it took my second read-through to realize that it was in fact a revelation. Even upon a third read-through, though, I wasn't able to figure out exactly what this and other revelations are supposed to tell us about the DNA evidence. I suspect it will all be much clearer when things come to a head in the next two issues, and maybe it's even an intentional confusion, but I couldn't help but feel as if some of the revelations in this issue are not as clear as they should have been.
Fortunately, while I don't get everything yet, I'm sure I will in the end, and in the meantime, I'm left with some great character moments and sharp humor. The relationship between Jack and Nora has been a lot of fun, and while their last few break-up/make-up moments have seemed a little forced, it has never seemed beyond the bounds of reality, when relationships can often be damaged by the most superficial of miscommunications. At any rate, it was nice to see the two of them reach a pivotal moment in the relationship this issue, and though that has a touch of anticlimax to it as well, that bit at least is deliberate and used for a humorous moment. There are plenty of those throughout the issue as well, especially Nora's reaction to Jack's tale of cat trouble.
I've sort of stopped mentioning how much I like Watson's artwork because I feel like I've hit on it every issue and at this point, it should be taken as written that I am a huge fan of Watson's art style in general and his work on Love Fights in particular. Just in case, though, let me say that his splash of the "cat cave" in this issue is a terrific little setpiece, that he manages to make the dialogue-driven talking heads sequence in the cab visually exciting and that the payoff for the Nora-Jack relationship is a beautiful piece of artwork as well. Love Fights has taken a turn in the past couple issues into more intricate and potentially confusing territory, but it's always beautiful to look at and engaging to read, and I remain certain that when this whole series sits in two trades on my bookshelf, it will be something I'll revisit pretty frequently.
