 |
"For Better or Worse"
The Thing from Another World: Eternal Vows #3 (Dark Horse)
Written by David de Vries
Pencils by Paul Gulacy
Inks by Dan Davis
Cover by Paul Gulacy |
Jennifer makes a rash move that dooms Wallace Harbour.
Story Summary
MacReady and Rowan have tested the crew of the
Gettysburg and its catch and found them all negative.
But they still need to track down Jennifer, whom MacReady
knows must be infected because she appeared during Holt's
death-throw transformations (at the end of
"In Sickness or in Health").
They find her in her apartment and MacReady tries to torch her
with his flamethrower, but she escapes out a window.
MacReady gives chase and Jennifer infects another man along
the way to delay MacReady.
Jennifer runs to her place of work and there infects her
coworker Sharon. Soon Sharon grabs and infects a store
patron and Jennifer realizes it was a mistake to infect
additional people, just as Powell has been trying to warn her
in her head.
As night falls, Jennifer sets fire to the docks in hopes of
destroying the remaining Things while she escapes out to
sea.
MacReady and Rowan head to the docks and are soon under
assault by large numbers of people that have already been
assimilated by Jennifer's "rogue" conversions. Rowan decides
to sacrifice himself to keep the Things at bay while
MacReady swims out to the departing Gettysburg.
CONCLUDED IN THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD: ETERNAL VOWS
#4
Didja Notice?
As has been the case in all the Dark Horse sequels of
The Thing, the assimilation
of Julian on page 8 takes place much too quickly in
comparison to the estimated 1 hour needed...and without the
mess! MacReady's explanation of the ease of infection to Rowan
on page 11 is also incorrect, again suggesting that
infection takes mere seconds.
The street scene on panel 1 of page 10 is a repeat (though
differently colored) of the one in
"From This Day Forth"
on page 17, panel 1.
The customer at the Wallace Jean Emporium on page 12 seems
to refer to his overalls as "yakkas". I suppose this must be
a local term for the clothing item. Possibly it is related
to the Australian Aboriginal term "yakka" meaning "work".
The internal dialog between Powell and Jennifer suggests
they are different from other Things in their desire to
survive without competition from others of their kind. Is it
possible that because these two humans were
passionately in love with each other when they were turned
that their personalities have become dominant over that of
the Thing, causing them to behave so much differently than
the Things we've seen previously? That may be the point of
the marriage liturgy titles of each issue of Eternal
Vows as well.
Back to The Thing Episode
Studies