Review: Taking A Dive Into ‘The Twilight Zone’ #4

There’s one in every family, isn’t there? The loser. The screw-up. The sister or cousin or uncle who just can’t get their act together because life is treating them unfairly. Add in some sibling rivalry, and things get really interesting — especially in The Twilight Zone.

In this issue of the anthology comic series based on the classic television show, brother and sister Chet and Laura have rented a houseboat to celebrate Chet’s finally moving out of their mom’s basement. But this being The Twilight Zone, the boat is not as it seems.

As revealed by the issue’s title, False Bottom, the boat opens directly into the water. It’s not a glass-bottom, as Laura had assumed, but rather an actual opening. And, as you might guess, it transports anyone who goes through it to an unexpected location.

Nate Powell writes and draws this tale, creating familiar characters in the two. Laura is the responsible one. She wants only the best for Chet, who fancies himself as an alpha male thanks to the podcasters he listens to. Chet turns Laura’s compliments and encouragement into personal affronts and puts her down at every opportunity.

To say much more would dive into spoiler territory, but the story largely unfolds as you might expect. It’s unclear if Powell is exorcizing his familial demons or just trying to tell a relatable story, but he gets his point across, more or less.

Exactly what the watery portal represents is unclear. It serves as a bit of a flimsy plot device that doesn’t pay off for each character in the same way. Laura seems to be punished in the end, which doesn’t seem fair.

Powell’s black-and-white artwork does a fine job of storytelling. His standout work is the reversed white-and-black world that Chet escapes to. It’s like a Negative Zone where his dreams come true — only to turn into a nightmare.

Powell would benefit here from a few more pages to give his story – and the characters a better ending. But that’s not always possible in … The Twilight Zone.