Review: Dept. H Vol. 4- Lifeboat
Quick Summary
Pros: The book’s second half is exciting and answers questions that have remained a mystery since the series began. The conclusion is well-executed and meaningful.
Cons: The book’s first half is constantly interrupted by flashbacks. This causes some problems in terms of narrative and tone.
Overall: Though this collection has its problems, the final few chapters are so good that they make the entire adventure worthwhile and deliver a great conclusion to this series. This comes from the collection’s renewed focus on tension and its ability to answer questions, both of which are found in Mia’s struggle to reach the surface. Readers who have enjoyed this series thus far will find a rewarding conclusion in this volume.
Story
Dept. H Vol. 4: Lifeboat, by Matt Kindt, has a few problems early on but, in the end, manages to deliver a meaningful and satisfying conclusion to the series as a whole. The primary issue here is that flashbacks disrupt the otherwise entertaining narrative. This makes the first half of the book hard to connect with, since the tone is constantly shifting and the focus never seems to fully center around the present issues. However, the second half of the book places more focus on the present and ensures that any flashbacks are immediately relevant to what is going on. Plus, the book’s final chapter gives a fantastic and thought-provoking conclusion to the series as a whole.
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Storytelling in the first half of Lifeboat feels very similar to storytelling in After the Flood (Review), which is not good. Flashbacks completely dominate the narrative and leave little opportunity for the present situation to develop. They also conflict with the overall tone of the story, since each flashback cuts the tension of the present situation. This was forgivable in earlier volumes but is more annoying here, since new information is being exposed as the series as a whole is winding down.
Even the way in which flashbacks are approached feels unnatural. Almost every one of the flashbacks is presented as a story told to Mia from one of the other characters. This means that characters facing almost certain death are having casual conversations about random elements from their past. It feels unnatural and disrupts the otherwise well structured narrative.
Luckily, things start to improve around Lifeboat‘s halfway point. The narrative focuses less on irrelevant flashbacks and more on Mia’s current struggle. In doing so, Hari’s killer is revealed and the focus switches to a conversation about what Mia will do with the cure found by Dept. H. It is an interesting twist that answers questions from the past while opening up new questions for the future. Mia’s journey to reach these answers is also fraught with tension, which is handled better here than it was in earlier portions of the book.
However, the best aspect of this entire collection is the way it concludes. Instead of answering the question of what Mia will do with Dept. H’s cure, the series ends on a cliffhanger. Readers are unsure if she will listen to her father and prioritize the greater needs of humanity, or listen to her mother and focus on helping as many people as possible. The open-ended nature of this conclusion is thought-provoking, and I spent a while exploring my own feelings regarding both options. By inspiring self-reflection in such a way, the final moments of Lifeboat may be the most significant moments in this entire series.
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Art
The visuals in Lifeboat are very similar to the visuals in Decompressed (Review), in that they look good but not great. Here, Matt Kindt does a wonderful job in structuring the artwork and ensuring that it continues to tell the story he is trying to tell. Plus, Sharlene Kindt’s colors continue to serve as a beautiful complement to Matt Kindt’s art, especially in the underwater scenes. However, there are still moments where character expressions look strange and motion feels static. These issues are mostly found in flashback scenes to events taking place on the surface but are still prevalent enough to affect the overall quality. In the end, this isn’t a bad looking volume, but it isn’t as good as some of the earlier work from this series.
Continuity
Dept. H Vol. 4: Lifeboat continues the story from Dept. H Vol. 3: Decompressed (Review).
This is the final volume in this series and the story concludes here.