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Life is Strange: Settling Dust #2 and #3 contain the middle section of the final arc and final volume of this fantastic series. Emma Vieceli and Claudia Leonardi have expanded upon the original game in so many interesting ways, culminating in a series about grief, acceptance, and friendship. Much like the original game, even when there is a joy to be had, there must also come sorrow.
Life is Strange: Settling Dust #2
Life is Strange: Settling Dust #2 is the big climax of the story we have been waiting for. Max and Tristan make their journey through the universes in order to get Max back to the Chloe she loves. It’s epic; it’s emotional and cathartic. Every page is a punch as the trials of all the past arcs come to the forefront leading us right to this moment
Special credit has to be given to Claudia Leonardi, her art for Life is Strange: Settling Dust #2 is something else. Every page is dripping with emotion, both pain and joy. But the several pages just filled with panel after panel of moment-to-moment timing is fantastic. In comics, you often use the gutter between panels to convey the passage of time. But when an artist wants to draw out a particular moment, the gutter doesn’t convey time passage as much as very subtle movement. We see that on display to great effect with Chloe and Max finally embracing and kissing or even when Chloe wakes up and fears this was all a dream too good to be true.
Emma Vieceli’s choice to do the last few pages completely without dialogue instead of song lyrics was such a great choice. This series has a strong connection to music already, but this time it hits even harder because of what is not said. This Max and Chloe have been apart so long and missed each other so much; no words will ever be able to convey their emotions properly. So instead, Emma lets Claudia’s art and the song say the words for them. But this issue’s biggest strength is that it’s not the last. It would be predictable to end the series with Chloe and Max reunited. But good stories continue past the obvious end and beg the question, “And then what?”
Life is Strange: Settling Dust #3
Life is Strange: Settling Dust #3 sees us come down from the big epic climax with a denouement that is very somber in its pacing. Yes, Chloe and Max are back together, and that’s great, but there is a lot more under the surface here that needs to be addressed. The first arc of this series deals with Chloe’s grief, getting closure. Max ran away from her closure; sure, it was done for good purposes, what with time messing up and all that, but it was still running away from her emotional turmoil. Now she sees what became of Arcadia Bay and is able to mourn all those that were lost. But, just like when she visited the Hurricane Katrina memorial in the other universe, she must come to terms with the results of what happened. The sad truth is that the death of one is a tragedy; the death of many is a statistic. But it’s so important to remember that human life cannot be boiled down to just a number.
The final part of Life is Strange: Settling Dust #3 jumps ahead in time a little to see a settled in Max and Tristan in this universe. Tristan and Lawrence are finally together, and Max and Chloe live together; all is happy, right? Yes and no, one can be happy and understand that sorrow must also come along for the ride as they say in the issue, no pain, no gain. It took a great effort for Max and Tristan to get to this universe, both emotionally and physically. They are still recovering and, in many ways mourning the other universe. In order to heal, you must grieve first. Sorrow and happiness come together as a package deal.
There is also an interesting setup that hopefully will be explored in the final issue. Max and Tristan discuss how they traveled to the other universes and theorize that there must be room available in order to enter. So Max is the universe where Rachel is alive might very well be dead. Who knows what this creative team has in store for us in the final issue, but this is one mystery that has caught my attention.
Life is Strange: Settling Dust #2 and #3 Give Us What We Wanted And More
Life is Strange: Settling Dust #2 and #3 steer the series towards its inevitable end in a way few series would have the guts to do. The big moment, the climax that everyone has waited for over many arcs, the reunion of Max and Chloe, happens, but it is not the end; it is merely the start of the end. Good storytellers know that while the story ends on a literal level when they no longer write it, but on a meta-level, they know that the story never really ends. So the slower, melancholic denouement is appreciated in many ways.