The Nice House by the Sea (2024-) #4 (The Nice House on the Lake

The Nice House by the Sea

by James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno (artist)

The impossible has happened —the House has been invaded from the outside. What does it mean that someone, anyone, out there still exists? And how far will the residents of the House go to protect themselves?

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Comic Book

40 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 30, 2024

About the author

Prior to his first professional work, Tynion was a student of Scott Snyder's at Sarah Lawrence College. A few years later, he worked as for Vertigo as Fables editor Shelly Bond's intern. In late 2011, with DC deciding to give Batman (written by Snyder) a back up feature, Tynion was brought in by request of Snyder to script the back ups he had plotted. Tynion would later do the same with the Batman Annual #1, which was also co-plotted by Snyder. Beginning in September 2012, with DC's 0 issue month for the New 52, Tynion will be writing Talon, with art by Guillem March. In early 2013 it was announced that he'd take over writing duties for Red Hood and the Outlaws in April.

Tynion is also currently one of the writers in a rotating team in the weekly Batman Eternal series.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ohhhh! The alien intrigue gets spicy!
And who exactly is Oliver in all of this?



This is the issue that finally started making sense of this series for me.
I can't tell if it's because my memory is terrible or if because this one has a big reveal in it.
Did anyone else know who Max was? I'd either forgotten about Max or...
It doesn't really matter, and I probably should have gone back and read everything from The Nice House by the Lake before I started this one.
BUT WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT?!
I'm definitely going to do a re-read before the series continues in The Nice House by the Pond, though.



Ok, so the big thing in this one is that both sides are aware of each other now. The Lake House is scrambling around trying to figure out how to cover up for the lack of Walter, and the Sea House is hellbent on getting the truth of their situation out of Oliver.
Things are getting good.

Recommended.

[Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, thank the powers that be, AKA James Tynion IV, for giving us a lovely breakdown of all the connections so I'm now no longer slightly confused. Also, Walter really has been playing the long game. It was sweet/creepy when dog Walter got excited for guessing what he wanted them to do. Also the people over at the house by the sea aren't really "nice" at all...

[Colin Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn, it’s good to see a Vertigo book on the shelves again. Very fitting that it’s a chapter from Tynion’s masterpiece that ushers it back in. The two houses are hurtling toward a confrontation….

[Cybernex007 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This drama is amazing, I love seeing the characters grow closer together and finally have a driving force to push them forward (especially with Ryan who has had trouble finding her place) and things continue to get even more intense. This issue sets David as our narrator as we join him in the apocalyptic future at the end of a dock surrounded by wrecked ships, this does not look like the dock found by a lake which sends up major red flags for me, but the topic of conversation is Walter had his he would deal with sadness. David was always one to push Walter to go further, even if both of them knew he would get hurt, and one night after a bunch of the Ryan stuff Walter took David to a play. Midway through Walter wanted to leave and David could not understand why, until their friends looked up the play later on and found out the truth…Oliver was staring in it. Everyone was mad at David for a while for letting Walter do that, but David could see the smile Walter had even if no one else did. Walter liked being sad, maybe it was the act of making other people care or maybe it made him feel the most human. But he always understood about Walter, if there is a wound he is going to stick his hand in and leave the rest of them to deal with it…and that is put on display no where else better than this issue. There is a part of this story that is unveiled slowly throughout the issue that I just have to picky back off of David’s sentiment because it works so well. We occasionally see recovered and deleted security footage from Sarah Lawrence College where Walter went to school. We found out in the first series that Walter went to a different school than his friends but still tried to maintain control, now we know why. As it turns out, he went here because Oliver was going to go here. But it turns out Oliver dropped out at the last minute and left to be out of Walter’s life without even telling him. To say that Walter didn’t handle it well would be an understatement, as Walter immediately split open his head and turned into a swirling ball of alien destruction the moment the receptionist informed him of Oliver not attending. This information will technically be relayed later on, but it helps in understanding a few things about Oliver’s situation and the manipulation attached to it.

As we jump into this issue and get our nice house by the sea title card, I can’t help but notice that the sea is staying at the same level…but the seagulls are dying. Oliver woke up this morning and began looking over old pictures. All while the writer, the historian, the scientist, and the doctor are meeting in secret so the writer can reveal to them everything he discovered at the end of the last issue. To do this he proposes an idea, if they are meant to be the last bastions of humanity…what would you suppose if you found out there were others? The historian immediately hits the nail in the head by proposing Darwinism…survival of the fittest, only one remaining. Which means they have a very big problem. Back at the lake house, Norah is deciding to stay out of the overall group meeting…which ultimately gives Reg the chance to fully cover the high school drama regarding Max and Norah and their hard breakup that caused a split between Walter and Max. Max was described as going to another school but knew Walter in prep, and when she came over and eventually left she brought with her Oliver, who stayed with Walter. That was around the time Sam hung out with them and eventually Norah dated Ronnie. Reg then describes what I mentioned earlier, how Walter moved across the country to go to the same college as Oliver only for Oliver to drop out without telling him. Now that the history lesson is over we need to think about the present, how Max is going to come over and find Walter gone/dead. They won’t be able to kill her as there aren’t controls to make her human like they did with Walter. What if they can pretend Walter is still alive? They could drip feed the truth, mention how Naya died and they told Walter they didn’t want to see him anymore and he stepped away. That opens up the problem of there being too many people there, but Max knows Walter and won’t be surprised he broke the rules. Reg is also betting that she will think her house is better and will want to win on merit instead of ratting them out for some weird rules. So it’s either lie or they die anyway.

Back at the house by the sea, Oliver walks out and collects his breakfast, intent on taking it to read by the water, but the writer is waiting for him and wants to talk. He enjoyed the storm quite a bit yesterday but found it odd that his marker left his room as the writer and doctor were watching the map, and he found it even stranger when three unidentified markers showed up. Oliver doesn’t want to continue this conversation and attempts to leave, only to be stopped by the scientist and the doctor. He will say nothing until their meeting, but they claim to have ways to make him speak. The doctor seems all too happy to take the control panel and then completely remove Oliver’s leg bones, sending him hurtling to the ground in pain. The historian then shows up to assist them, actually asking for forgiveness but justifying it because of his lying. The writer then has the doctor take away Oliver’s mouth, causing it to twist out into non-existence, as he will have his time for talking later and they don’t want him tipping off Max.

As the issue comes to an end we jump back to the lake house where Ryan enlists Rick’s help to take down Walter’s gravestone so as to not easily unveil their lie. The two of them seem to be getting closer through their shared grief, as they are the only ones to actually express it, and while everyone else (save Norah of course) is cleaning up dinner, David points out the obvious they have been missing. Walter thought his house was the best and that they would survive the long hall, which means he thinks everyone in the other houses will die…but now they know there is somebody else in another house he would never want to die. Uh oh. Walter left the door open because he wants them to save Oliver, he wants Oliver to finally choose Walter and say that he was right, unlike college all those years ago…which is probably why, David supposes, they are all going to die.

[Kastie Pavlik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another issue that reads more like a drama with a few exceptions, and we get a straight-up rundown on the who's who and what of the group's dynamics. Those few exceptions where the horror returns are perfect, too. They're simple but weighty and don't let you fall into a sense of complacency where you can relax thinking you know where this is going.

[Safae · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS THE BEST ONE YET..... I love this sooooo much