Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, Vol. 1

One would expect rollicking, madcap adventure from a comic series with a name like this, and the creative team—writers Rivera and Way and artist Oeming—partially delivers, but zaniness comes at the expense of intelligibility. The story opens with underground explorer Cave Carson, more than a decade in retirement, mourning the death of his wife, Eileen. Meanwhile, his cybernetic eye, which provides information about his surroundings, is fritzing out and causing hallucinations. An alarming message from Eileen’s underground ancestral home yanks Carson out of retirement and sends him tunneling back into the earth alongside his daughter, Chloe, and sidekick, Mad Dog. The tone, which mixes pulpy adventure with serious family melodrama, resembles Way’s Eisner-winning comic The Umbrella Academy, but that series had a narrative clarity that this lacks. The comic is bogged down by backstory and Oeming’s cluttered art; it’s not always clear what’s going on, why things are happening, or what motivation drives each character. (July)