What the hell happened here? Seriously, where did the series that I loved go?
I don't really know where the begin here, but I guess let's start with the Lobos. Yost appears to want us to empathize with them as a deranged Kaine makes short work of them, as if the fact that they're cold-blooded assassins isn't really their fault. The problem is that Yost hasn't really done anything to make them into sympathetic characters, except perhaps establishing that Carlos is motivated, in part, by resurrecting their brother, Eduardo. On a side note, I just realized in this issue that the Lobos are supposed to be the same characters as the ones who appeared in "Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Web of Spider-Man" in the 1980s. But, according to Wikipedia, Esme was Eduardo's lover, not sister. So, I'm not really sure how Esme became a werewolf, given that Carlos and Eduardo were werewolves because they were born mutants and Esme, presumably, wasn't. Maybe she got the Man in White to turn her into a werewolf, something that he could presumably do if he could also resurrect Eduardo? Yost probably needs to go into some detail here. But, honestly, clarifying the relationship within the Lobos is the least of our worries.
Moving onto another gripe, the Man in White apparently wants Aracely dead for some sort of event to begin, but, instead of killing her, just puts her in the shipping container where Kaine originally found her. If Roxxon wanted the immigrants alive and not dead, as the Man in White stresses, then why would he put her in there if he wanted her dead? Why not, you know, just kill her? But, again, as annoying as this loose end is, we have bigger fish to fry.
The most serious problem here is that the Other storyline makes no sense. It almost feels like a double-exposed negative, like Yost is telling two stories accidentally at the same time. I have no idea why he decided to insert the Other into this storyline since, as I established above, the Lobos could've used some more attention to flesh out the concept. But, just as soon as we establish that Kaine is no longer human, he zips off his Other skin like he was just wearing a Halloween costume, apparently no worse for wear. Seriously, WTF, Yost? It was so totally random. I mean, I get that he allegedly broke the hold that the Other had over him because he was going to kill Aracely, but it again begs the question why Yost decided even to use the Other storyline in the first place if it was just going to be ditched after one issue. Plus, I don't get why we've now apparently decided that we're a monster. I mean, he died. He got resurrected. It's not exactly like he was totally in control of his actions. Why does this sequence of events prove to be the thing that makes him consider himself a monster? Plus, are we still on this hobby horse? I mean, at what point can we just let him, I don't know, stop some muggers and call it a day? Do we still have to keep harping on this problem? I thought Donald's talk with him settled this issue. Why are we re-hashing it yet again?
Finally, the end is just bizarre. Yost flips through several events, such as Aracely suddenly getting possessed, Julia Carpenter muttering Kaine's name to herself in her coma, and the Man in White (now Brown) preparing for some Mexican god (possibly the one giving Aracely her powers) to come after him. I think it's supposed to show how crazy the next few issues are going to be, but it actually left me just wishing we could actually wrap up some stuff and put this series on more equal footing before we get all metaphysical.
[Sigh.] Man, this series has taken a turn for the worse. I'm hoping we get back to the great stories about Kaine struggling to be a hero soon.
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