You know what's kind of weird? I think I prefer Sleeper as a miniseries, even though I love the book and don't really want it to end. The thing is, with a set endpoint in mind, whether it's the end and relaunch of the previous series or the deliberately limited format of this one, I know that the story is going somewhere pretty fast. That means I can enjoy the ride a little more, knowing that Brubaker already knows what the secret plans are of all involved, and all the anticipation is sweeter because I know there's a payoff coming sooner rather than later. The focus on the last few issues has been on Lynch and Tao, but with this issue, the spotlight falls squarely back onto Holden, a pawn who knows he's being used and who is trying to get himself a different role in the game.
The complexities of the relationships in Sleeper Season Two are potentially headache-inducing, but they're rewarding as well. Holden is now working for Tao, but he's pretending he's working for Lynch, who originally sent him in to pretend he was working for Tao. Or is he working for Lynch again? Holden's pretty much a triple agent at this point, and he's got his own agenda besides. The cool thing about all of this is that I have no idea who's playing who or what the ultimate goals of everyone involved are. We've gotten glimpses of Tao and Lynch's plans and goals, but Holden, despite being the narrator of the book, remains more enigmatic. He can't feel physical sensations anymore, and his emotions have been dampened by his job, so what's left for him? What does he really want? A real connection with Miss Misery, out of the whole business, take down both Lynch and Tao in a fit of frustration? We don't know, and it's very compelling to watch it play out.
Throughout the series, we've seen that Holden is pretty smart. He has to be, in order to live the life that he's been stuck in. However, this is the first time I've seen him trying to hold his own with manipulators like Tao and Lynch, and it's fascinating to see that side come out. Even his relationship with Miss Misery, while built on real emotions, has elements of manipulation to it. I also continue to love Holden's strange moral dilemmas, which always call upon him to compromise himself. This issue, the moral dilemma and the compromise actually fall on Miss Misery by extension, and there's something deliciously dark about what she does, even knowing full well that she's hurting someone innocent of the crime he's being accused of.
For me, Sleeper Season Two has just one weakness, and that's a supporting cast that is smaller and not as interesting as the one that we had in Season One. Brubaker tries to introduce a new character in this one, but it feels out of place with the rest of the issue, unrelated to any of the other events. It's a fun story, to be sure, a twisted and hilarious set of powers and origin that tweaks the origin of a well-known superhero, but it lacks context, and the character herself pales beside the crew that Holden ran with in the first series.
Of course, Phillips and Strachan have no trouble making the switch in tone required for this flashback story. Their over-the-top, brightly lit and more kinetic style on the flashback give it a lot of its strange sense of humor. Meanwhile, the rest of the book is wonderfully dark and moody, as always. The action scene is muted, but that's by design, as Holden has sort of stepped out of the role of direct action and more into the role of motivator and mover from behind or above the scenes. There are some great static shots, such as Holden delivering his info to Lynch in the rain, that really sell the relationship between the characters with just one small moment. And there's just terrific emotion and atmosphere on that last page, which marks a turning point for the relationship between Miss Misery and Holden, even if both of them don't know it yet. 9/10
