In this issue, Sleeper Season Two goes right past Holden Carver and into the past, as Brubaker delves into the backstory that drives both Lynch and Tao. While the revelation here isn't one that will probably shock anyone, it is interesting to see all of the motivations laid out so plainly in a book that revolves mostly around deception and uncertainty, and even more interesting to see Lynch, king bastard, in a more sympathetic light. There are a few other familiar faces in here that I enjoyed seeing as well, but the real strength of this issue is that it provides the answers underlying a lot of the questions about the covert war that this book has centered on pretty much since the beginning and especially since the relaunch with Season Two.
While Holden Carver has remained front and center in Sleeper Season Two, it has been clear that to some extent, the story is not as much about him as it used to be. Instead, the battle he was fighting, to stay sane and undercover inside Tao's organization, now seems to be smaller, as only part of a longstanding covert war between Tao and Lynch. Brubaker's story here delves into Wildstorm continuity, but as with similar explorations he's done, it doesn't really require readers to know what happened in any previous Wildstorm books. Instead, the time jumps to what happened between issues of WildC.A.T.s or other books when Tao was introduced and seemingly eliminated shows us his transition to major mover in the Wildstorm universe.
Off the topic of the central point of the issue, which is the secret history of the war between Lynch and Tao, I have to admit that I got a kick out of the familiar faces. I've started to think that killing off Genocide, while surprising, might have been a big mistake for Brubaker, as I miss the levity and regular guy vibe that he brought to the book and the way he humanized Carver, and I got a kick out of seeing him again, however briefly. I was also much amused by the use of DC marketing honcho Bob Wayne in a prominent story role.
One of the really cool things that Brubaker and Phillips have done in Sleeper is to make unlikely characters seem like the most dangerous kind of people. Tao is a difficult character to get right, created as a super-intelligent, creepy and ambiguously loyal member of WildC.A.T.s by Alan Moore, but I think that Brubaker might actually be putting him to better use than even Moore did. Tao's ability to out-think his foes, combined with a physical threat that is left mostly off page, puts him more in the realm of scary Hannibal Lecter-esque serial killer than Dr. Doom without the armor and green cape, and I completely buy into his role as the spy bogeyman.
What is more fascinating, and is really the center of this issue, is how Tao's role affects Lynch. Though he doesn't lose his edge, when it comes to facing Tao, we do see Lynch experiencing something he never otherwise seems to. Things like doubt, remorse and even fear are visible in Phillips' depiction of Lynch in this issue. In the modern day Sleeper, Lynch's pursuit of Tao comes off as mostly an angry vendetta, but in these early days, we see the worry and doubt that caused Lynch to steel his resolve, and can maybe even understand to some extent why he would destroy a man's life in order to get someone inside Tao's organization. 9/10
