I waited a year to read Volume 2 of Torsobear because the story I had begun was such a gut punch of a story. Innocent and sweet looking toys doing very nasty things. It was definitely something that I needed to recover from in order to continue.
While Volume 2 was nowhere near as good as the opening salvo, it continued to be a story that made the reader feel uneasy. Only this time I wasn't going to wait another year to finish the storyline.
Ruxby is back on the force. Only now he's doing crowd control with SWAT as Toyburg has descended into chaos. In the fallout of the Torsobear/Copycat killings, Mayor Huntington has turned the city into a police state, arresting innocent people while the real Copycat Killer pulls the strings literally from behind the curtains.
There's also unrest in the lands across the Lemonade Sea. Only now this struggle is over class warfare as wealthy toys get richer while the poorer, less advanced playthings get poorer.
I really didn't like this final volume. Sure, the Copycat Killer storyline gets really confusing and meta. Yet if the various writers and artists behind this project would have just stuck with that plot, things would have been okay. Instead, a lot of space in this book was wasted on what felt like a play date version of Les Mis. If the creators had wanted to do a follow-up volume of the class warfare struggles that occurred at the same time as the events in Toyburg, I would have been good with that. See, Volume 3 also finally reveals what happened in the Saturday Morning War which essentially led to the formation of this vast play-land. Spending time on the secondary plotline took time away from the origin story that was needed because if you look in the background, the Copycat Killer was there involved in the war. His motivations are overlooked because the creative team decided to throw 'a batteries not included' version of The Communist Manifesto into the mix.
Torsobear was a large project that came about thanks to crowdfunding and a lot of word of mouth. It's been about 5 years since this third and final volume was published. Those behind this project are probably done with Toyburg. I, the reader am not. There was so many questions left unanswered. While I in no way want to undo the happy ending, I want more answers. What was Copycat Killer doing in the Saturday Morning War? How did the Mayor come to power? What role did Hazbrow play in the war? And who killed Strax Power?
Maybe a companion piece could be forthcoming. I could see a story where as the citizens of Toyburg re-build, they uncover clues that reveal the answers to my questions and more in flashback. It could work.
Thankfully, if a Volume 4 ever comes to fruition, it will probably be a couple of years before it comes out. GOOD! Parts of this story freaked me the Hell out. When Copycat paints a demonic set of teeth over the crescent moon, it reminded me of the frightening moon that hangs over Christmasland in Joe Hill's NOS4A2 and the graphic novel companion piece, Wraith.
The artwork was superior once again. So many freaking awesome Easter eggs! Some great parts that were crowded out by a tangent that was unnecessary. I'm just so disappointed in how an idea with great promise fizzled at the end.
Not Worth Consuming!
Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.
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