Chew #18

Written by John Layman
Art by Rob Guillory

Once again, Layman and Guillory give us a single-issue story that fits within a larger narrative arc, but can be enjoyed completely on its own.  Tony and Colby are being sent on increasingly dangerous missions (I love the panel that depicts them as a cat and mouse - it really drives home the point), and in this issue, are sent to assist the USDA in a military raid of a base in North Korea.

This is basically a suicide mission, to wipe out a general who has developed a synthetic avian flu, and Tony's role in the mission is to deploy a secret weapon if all else fails.  I don't want to reveal what that secret weapon is, except to say that it involves the return of a character I didn't think we'd see again.

As with just about any issue of Chew, this one is smart and very funny.  Next month, Layman is going to jump up to issue 27 to give us a sense of where the title is headed.  I don't normally like a lot of gimmicks like that, but I'm definitely interested.