Everything, Vol. 2: Black Friday

Everything #6-10

by Christopher Cantwell, I.N.J. Culbard (Illustrator), Steve Wands (Illustrator)

The mind-blowing second volume of the hit series from Christopher Cantwell (AMC'S acclaimed Halt and Catch Fire, She Could Fly) and I.N.J. Culbard (The New Deadwardians, Brink)!

Things in Holland, Michigan are stranger than ever: while some of the townspeople fall deeper into the mysteries of the disturbingly alluring and increasingly inescapable Everything mega-store, a growing array of renegade citizens form an underground resistance against its masters. Murky answers to bizarre questions finally surface... who, or what, is really in control of Everything... and why? Monstrous villains will be revealed, all out war will explode out into the parking lot, and deep beneath the store, the remaining few will venture forth into an unfathomable--maybe even inhuman--horizon as the American Dream gets derailed in a nightmarish turn.

Collects Everything #6-#10.

A wonderfully bizarre, human, and ominous comic about true Happiness... And like a lot of my favorite comics, it just throws you right into the action and weirdness, and builds a real momentum until all is revealed. This is a great book.--Gerard Way, The Umbrella Academy

Everything crawls deep under your skin and sits with you long after you put it down. A strange and beautiful evisceration of this hyper-commodified world we live in. Trust me, you don't want to miss out on this one.--James Tynion IV, Batman, Something is Killing the Children

A book to be cherished. Cantwell and Culbard have crafted a uniquely surreal American horror - a story that guides you to the oasis between the eldritch and the mundane, good intention and desperate cruelty, nothing... and everything.--Jackson Lanzing, Star Trek: Year Five

Like all great sci-fi, Everything takes the existing world and pushes it several smart terrifying steps forward. An incisive modern commentary that will leave you thoughtful and questioning your world in the best of ways.--Kelly Thompson (Captain Marvel, Hawkeye)

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Science Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Christopher Cantwell/INJ Culbard’s first Everything book so I was a bit worried to see no comics being published for nearly a year after the fifth issue - would the story remain untold? So I was delighted to see the second, and final, volume pop up seemingly outta the blue - apparently Dark Horse decided to release the last five issues as a graphic novel rather than individually before the trade.

That said… I found Everything, Volume 2: Black Friday disappointing, unfortunately. Cantwell does answer a lot of the strange mysteries set up in the first book but, as sometimes happens, the setup turned out to be more interesting than the resolution in most cases.

I understood why Everything was doing what it was doing, even if “why” was kinda generic, but I didn’t get why Gooder, the big boss himself, did the things he did or what really happened to his character in the final act. It just seemed like Cantwell needed an arbitrary big bad to end the book on a cliched final battle and, even though it wasn’t set up or made much sense, Gooder was “it”.

The chapter on Gooder’s origins was compelling, though, again, his actions against the man who gave him his big break were baffling. Culbard’s art is excellent too - he’s a master of drawing simple, yet unnervingly effective, horror.

I’m glad we at least got a conclusion to the story, though it’s an underwhelming finale - if you were a fan of the first book, don’t get your hopes up too high with Everything, Volume 2: Black Friday.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked the first volume of Everything. The storytelling was willfully obtuse, but in quite a tantalising Twin Peaks kind of way. The epitome of "let's see where this goes".



Sadly it doesn't go anywhere really interesting. We get answers to a lot of questions, and I don't think we really wanted those questions answered. It turns the story in a more middle-of-the-road science fiction story.



I like Culbard's art in this a lot, it has a distanced, unreal Daniel Clowesness to it, that fits the dampened weirdness of the story.

I don't know, maybe I've just been reading Everything wrong.

(Kindly received an ARC from Dark Horse Books through Edelweiss)

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this graphic novel that closes out the series better than its predecessor miniseries. We get the big answers about what is going on. However, the pacing is weird. It's all fired at you with a firehose so it can get all crammed in there. Clearly, Cantwell had plans to make this a longer series than Dark Horse wanted, especially in the midst of a pandemic. We also don't get very satisfying why certain events happen. They just happen.

I can see from my friends' reviews, they like Culbard's art much more than I do. I find it flat and uninspiring. It's fine is about the best I can say about it.

[Jon Hewelt · Rating 1 out of 5]

So much for this being a slow-burner. Volume 1 intentionally obfuscated things in order to stretch out the story, and then Volume 2 felt so rushed in having to explain everything it had to say about consumerism, et. al.

And as for the comparison to Twin Peaks...granted, I went into reading this with a healthy amount of skepticism when both the blurb and the authors compares Everything to Twin Peaks. I consider Twin Peaks, though far from perfect, a complex, dream-like marvel, and though this graphic novel tries for complexity, and tries for dream-like, the conclusion ends up being simple and straightforward. Bizarre, sure, and creative in its own right, but far from original and hardly a marvel.

I picked this one up mostly for Culbard. I like his illustration work. But jeez, this one just suuuuuuuucks.

[Mike Jorgensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is much more in the realm of 3.5 stars than 4, but I really enjoyed this. Some meta-commentary is that this book got delayed in single issue and the single issues for this volume never came out. One can only assume that this book had intentions of a much longer run so volume 2 became the "wrap it up" book.

That said, I was genuinely surprised by the ending. It is shockingly upbeat and hopeful, perhaps that is what the creative team thought we needed for a post-COVID ending. The espionage aspect of mystery-solving starts to take a back seat to character's investment in the mystery. That is a much more compelling way to draw the reader into the mystery. The resolution is a bit rushed, but that is to be expected given the off-the-page issues relating to this book. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending incorporating aliens, time loops, and most importantly, decent characters getting satisfying endings.

[Keen Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars!

I read the first volume of this last year and enjoyed it and I had pretty much forgotten all about it until I stumbled across this follow up at the library the other day, which was a pleasant surprise.

First of all I can't fault the art work at all, just like last time we get quality all the way through. As for the story itself, well that is a different matter altogether. All of that mystery, promise and tension has collapsed into a bit of a confusing and unconvincing anti-climax and I have to say in the end this was a bit of a disappointing mess.

[Rob Schamberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The emotional maturity and honesty that Cantwell brings to all of his stories is such a refreshing change of pace. Culbard’s deft minimalism is perfect for this story, too.

[Benjamin Bauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything Volume 1 left me with a lot of curiosity about how this serious would conclude. I'd dare say the first volume was some of the most fun I'd had reading a comic in a little while. While entertaining in its own right, Black Friday eschews the mystery and tension of its predecessor in favor of a more standard science fiction-thriller plot.

Set two weeks after the events of the preceding volume, Marshall Gooder has remained in Holland following the Everything parade. Rick the sound guy is a prisoner of Everything. Eb and his kids are sick as shit, while Lori still works for Everything, and Shirley's back with a bandaged head. Saying much else would constitute spoilers, but in sum: Gooder = bad, and boy does he have some nasty plans in store for some of our cast.

I really wanted to like this a lot more. To a point, I in fact adored it! The first three issues contained in this volume were pure Everything gold for me. There's some major revelations about the origins of the store, as well as reveals concerning its sinister influence that I'm sure would be a deal-breaker for most. For me, I was totally on board! Right up until the final two issues which, while serviceable, and even with some high moments, were pretty standard. Think if Stephen King had penned the screenplay for They Live. You may get a rough idea of the direction this book takes with its final third. It manages that unfortunate feat of being entertaining while also...underwhelming.

In the art department, Culbard is still aces, mostly. He doesn't quite nail some of the more action-y bits (Once again, those final two issues, tsk tsk), but I particularly enjoyed his work in the middle issue, wherein we're given a glimpse of Gooder's past. There's even a few two-page spreads that pop right up out of the page with how vibrant they are...and I do love me some two-page spreads!

Gooder was another weakness of the script for me. Cantwell creates an intriguing, unsettling antagonist in him, only to resort to what I can only describe as turning him into a generic boss-monster. It's fun in a b-movie-ish kinda way, bit like the ending to the NES Castlevania, oddly enough. But when you spend an entire issue building a villain up. Hell, when you lay hints here and there about the guy's personality, including the depths to which he's truly fucked in the head...well, like other parts of the final third: underwhelming.

If you enjoyed the first volume, I think you owe it to yourself to read the second. Taken together, both volumes of Everything come across as a solid, sometimes quite unique, scifi horror movie. Or even a season of a bingeworthy show. I just wish things had amounted to more than a throwdown between the forces of good and evil. Whereas She Could Fly seemed to go out of its way to alienate whoever read it to its end, Everything seemed to double-down on trying to make too much bloody sense. I still wish more books were as weird as it, and I'm definitely curious to see what Cantwell pens next in the realm of sequential art. Hell, if Everything gets a sequel somehow, I'd still be curious to see what he does with its world. I think that's probably the highest praise I could give this book, despite its shortcomings for me.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

THREE AND A HALF STARS

i liked this volume better than the first!! i liked the backstory we get and i enjoyed the action but i do think it still fails to reach its highest potential.

i do like that the actual story doesn’t go totally nuts. they could have easily jumped the shark but they don’t. there’s a consistent intrigue from the first issue to the last. things are still kooky tho, don’t get me wrong!! and i liked the kookiness.

it does feel a little rushed. the pace in the first volume versus the second is totallyyyy different. but it was satisfying by the end. fun!! and worth reading despite some flaws.

[Sidny · Rating 1 out of 5]

My Rating: 1/5

I don't know why I expected this to be able to hit all the plot points that I hoped it would. This felt rushed and I was hoping for a bigger build-up of what was going on with this company, this town and this science fiction setting. It was not all I hoped.

Thanks for reading,
Sidny

[Geneviève Binette · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 étoiles. La traduction française regroupe les volumes 1 et 2. Lu parce que décrit comme une critique du consumérisme mondialisé. Il s'agit d'un album de science-fiction où se mêle des êtres venus d'une autre dimension. Ne m'a pas interpellé. Mention pour le graphisme en phase avec l'époque. J'ai adoré le travail d'illustration.

[K M · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting twilight zone/Black mirror styled story of mystery and horror. vol2 was surprisingly a quick read, it may not be dense with story and art but raises interesting thoughts about happiness and our consumer lifestyles.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 1 out of 5]

So in love with firing a broadside at American consumer culture and midlife notions of what happiness really is that it forgets to tell much of a story.

[Rachel Kaphing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this art style but the story is definitely weird. The concept is good but they go buck wild with it, but still fun and worth checking out the two volume series.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preparing for the coming of the Hapax Legemon. The dangers of capitalism and too much happiness. Time loops.