Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye #2 Review and **SPOILERS**

Take This Job and Shove It

Written By: Gerard Way & Jon Rivera 

Art & Cover By: Michael Avon Oeming 

Interior and Cover Colors By: Nick Filardi 

Letters By: Clem Robins 

Back-Up By: Tom Scioli

Cover Price: $3.99 

On Sale Date: November 16, 2016

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

I’ve been thinking of all the things I might do if I had a cybernetic eye, and all I can come up with is that I would use my X-ray vision to look at people’s nakedness. I understand I could also check out people’s heart rates, maybe pull some information from a clandestine database regarding whatever I view, but I would be using it primarily to look through clothing. I suppose this makes me a terrible person, but how could I not do this? I’m sure it would become so perfunctory that I would be inured to seeing people nude all the time. On line at the grocery store, lazily looking at the pimpled butt of the octogenarian in front of me; paying for my items while scrutinizing some unusual moles on the cashier’s chest. Just part of life, me and my cybernetic eye and the fact that I know what everyone’s junk looks like. Cave Carson isn’t so crass, however, he uses his cybernetic eye for…well, I’m not sure what he uses it for. It’s about time we got some answers about this so-called cybernetic eyeball, don’t you think? Let’s take a look at issue #2 and find out what’s what!

Explain It!

We find out how Cave Carson got his cybernetic eye right at the beginning of the book: seems that some time ago, he was spelunking (as Cave is wont to do) and on the hunt for the Magma Troll, when a white marble with spindly robot legs approached Cave from out of the darkness. After a polite platitude by Carson, the marble gassed him and leapt up onto his face, yanking out his right eye and nestling in the socket like some sort of jealous sibling. The process seems quite painful, and while we don’t learn what is behind this eyeball replacement procedure, or why Cave was a recipient, we know at least that he didn’t elect to have it done at the cosmetic optometrist’s. In the present day, Cave’s daughter Chloe is out with her slacker boyfriend Daniel, acting like a lot of typical young couples in that Chloe wants to go see the original print of a classic film while Daniel wants to drop a lot of sexual innuendo. Ah, young love! After the movie, they return to Chloe’s dorm room at the University of Fawcett City, and find two burly, masked men in pink shirts in the room! One of them silently shoots Daniel in the chest with a dart, which is also sort of romantic, in its way.

While that’s going on, Cave is down at his job, EBX, looking for some clues that might help him understand why a Muldroogian came to his house and mentioned EBX before dying and turning into a horrible fungus monster. He’s poking around the new, uh, super-tunneling tank spaceship the Mighty Mole, when security shows up and tells him that the big boss, Mr. Borstein would like to see him. And man, I got pangs just like when I would get called to the Principal’s office in junior high school. Seems there’s a problem down below with the subterranean Muldroogans: their king has abdicated the throne and locked himself away in a vault. Also it seems that a cat ate the last slice of chocolate cake and a bird flew into my bedroom and took my homework away for its nest. To broker with the Muldroogans, Mr. Borstein needs someone with the proper pedigree—and known that Cave’s dead wife was actually Queen Mazra P’thrall of the Muldroogans, he’s sent men to capture their daughter Chloe at this very moment, since I guess there’s no leadership distinction between a half-breed and a full-breed. Cave listens patiently to Mr. Borstein’s pitch, the drops his nudie guy novelty pen into a glass of Soder Cola, creating a terrific explosion that knocks out a good corner of the building and possibly kills Mr. Borstein? I’m not sure. Cave takes off, submitting his resignation as he goes by way of, you know, having blown up a major part of the office.

Cave escapes some security and makes off with the Mighty Mole, thanks to a sympathetic guard at the front desk. First, he goes to pick up Wild Dog, currently cornered by some menacing members of human-trafficking operatives Circle of Serpents. He takes Cave’s call and gives his position, then Cave has the Mighty Mole send out a lightning pulse or something? Whatever it is, the Circle of Serpents is reduced to several wads of red paste. That dispensed with, Cave tells Wild Dog to hop in the Mighty Mole and stop asking questions. Meanwhile, Mr. Borstein’s thugs are finding Chloe Carson more difficult to subdue than expected, and she smashes out of the second story window and runs off, sobbing. Eventually, she gets into her car and drives away with more thugs in hot pursuit. Cave and Wild Dog converge on Chloe’s position and pull ahead of the pack so Wild Dog can just destroy these poor thugs with a Gatling gun. I mean, he just wipes ‘em away, you’ve got to see it. As Cave tries to get Chloe into the Mighty Mole, four thugs in one of the cars totaled by Wild Dog’s gunplay take a glowing capsule apiece, and from the wreckage of their car bursts one of those weird fungus monsters that attacked Cave last issue! Which is probably them turning into the monster itself somehow! But that is implied so I am taking it at face value for now!

The back-up story by Tom Scioli is…very unique. It has a half-finished quality that makes it seem strangely ancient. It doesn’t seem to have thing one to do with the main story, however, so I’m not including it for the final score. I enjoyed this issue a little more than the previous one, I got some solid information that, while mainly dispensed in a conversation between Cave and Mr. Borstein, did clue me in to relationships between certain characters as well as just what the ding-dong is going on around here. The art is great, seemed much more consistent this time around, though there aren’t any scenes where Cave is obviously “using” his cybernetic eye. I am definitely warming up to this series, though, and look forward to delving yet deeper into the crevasses of this series.

Bits and Pieces:

There's a solid story emerging in this series, which may end up reading better in one sitting rather than parceled out in single issues. Still, this issue answers a few floating questions and provides some much-needed background that makes future installments compelling. The whole style of this book is fantastic, and it could easily be appreciated on its visual impact alone. I look forward to further adventures.

7.5/10