There's a certain predictability to the story of The Bunker. A big part of that is that the teaser text on the graphic novel pretty much gives away the story, and I can't help but wonder if I didn't know as much going in if the story would have had more impact on me. As is, however, despite having a sense of where the story was going throughout, I still enjoyed the read quite a bit thanks to Mutard's excellent characterization and dialogue. This is a fairly low-key story of two friends growing apart, and that's something all of us can relate to, even if the specifics of Annie's life might not be. Mutard also has a nice clean art style that works for the quiet, personal story, and overall The Bunker is a strong read.
Really, the key element in making this book work is making Annie and Jason, the lead characters, likable both on their own and as friends. Mutard accomplishes this very well, as Jason's narration gives us the sense of his loyalty to his friend even in the face of a sexual desire for her (something that has tripped up male-female friendships for years) and it's not hard to like Annie with her free-spirited ways. Annie also has a strange mix of childlike naivete and a forced adult sensibility. It may be too strange a comparison, but I was reminded of the Forrest-Jenny relationship in Forrest Gump, where one friend desperately wants to save the other but just can't really grasp her problems enough to do it.
The Bunker deals with a pretty horrible thing in Annie's past, but Mutard does an admirable job of having it affect Annie without turning this into an after-school special or a horror movie. In fact, had it not been blown in the text copy, I never would have guessed the secret that shaped so much of Annie's life, even though it would have made so much sense in retrospect. At any rate, given how likable and sweet Annie seems at the beginning, to see her sort of descend into a dangerous lifestyle is as heartbreaking for the reader as it is for Jason.
Mutard's story hits the smaller moments as much as the bigger ones, and that's a big part of the well-rounded characterization. The sexual tension between Annie and Jason that manifests in him catching a glimpse of her developing body, the locker room talk between Jason and his friends and things like the "blood or death" oath make this feel like a story of relatively normal adolescence. That grounded feeling makes the more extreme moments, like Annie's fight with her mother or the big revelation at the end, feel more powerful.
Though I didn't find it hard to follow the narrative flow of the story, I do sort of wish Mutard hadn't moved around in time as much as he did. Rather than using a couple of flashbacks or telling a story in order, he uses a variety of flashbacks, such that at some points I wasn't sure what happened when. For the most part, this lack of distinct time didn't hurt the narrative, but every so often I was confused about why the characters would act one way when their previous interaction would seem to indicate another... only to realize that their previous interaction hadn't happened yet. In particular, Mutard's "alternate ending" seemed to contain a key bit of information about repressed memories, and I find myself disagreeing with his test audience in terms of what would have made a more effective ending.
The artwork here is just as accomplished and subtle as the writing. Mutard makes Annie appear sexy to a 14-year-old boy like Jason without resorting to inappropriate cheesecake, focusing his panels to draw the reader's attention to what Jason is looking at. And the anger, resentment or grief that Annie and Jason both feel during the story is always clear, even though the characters are repressing it for one another. It's a remarkably subtle accomplishment that not many artists would be capable of.
