Mind The Gap #15

by Jim McCann, Rodin Esquejo & Dan McDaid

Issue fifteen of Mind The Gap marks the end of Act I of this series and even though it revealed a lot of Elle Peterssen’s past it still left us with more questions. Even though this series has had a lot of mystery and suspense, it really doesn’t feel like story has progressed very far for being fifteen issues deep.

Using flashbacks to reveal many things about The Fifth aka Elle’s grandfather, Erik, this issue uses the flashbacks to reveal more about Elle’s birth and her unique condition she suffered all through childhood. The one thing that was frustrating is the fact that Elle and her whole family were quite aware of her condition to randomly die for 96 seconds yet no one ever felt the need to really mention this in the fourteen previous issues. So even though it is a big reveal and explains quite a lot it makes you wonder why it took so long to divulge this information.

The contrasting art between the present by Rodin Esquejo and the past by Dan McDaid is still a very strong way of storytelling when jumping from the present to the past. One nice thing revealed this issue between these recent flashbacks is that maybe Elle’s cold-hearted mother might not be as terrible as she acts. Deep down she does love her daughter but you don’t know whose interest she’s really looking out for. It was very similar to the way her brother Eddie Jr. was a prick and a suspect for quite a few issues only to now be one of the good guys who is just trying to do what’s best for his family.

When It was announced that Act II would start in December, the feeling was there would be some sort of big payoff at the end of Act I but this really wasn’t much of an ending. The mystery still continues and it seems there are even more people involved with many layers yet to still be exposed.  We shall see how Act II opens and where things will progress but as of now us readers are left much like Elle, trapped in the dark.