Missing On The Moon #4 - Mad Cave Studios

MISSING ON THE MOON No. 4, April 2025

Seeming to forget several of this mini-series’ major plot-threads, most notably the fact that Daniel Schwinn was specifically called in by the lunar law enforcement agency to investigate the disappearance of poor Penny, Cory Crater’s narrative for Issue Four of “Missing On The Moon” must surely have left many a reader scratching their heads at its illogical conclusion. Indeed, the very notion that Osborne Scott would hire the private investigator to look into the case, even though the senior policeman was well aware of Senator Brooks’ satellite-wide drugs ring, as well as the numerous child abductions, makes very little sense; “I line their pockets, and they keep things hush hush.”

Similarly as disconcerting has to be the author’s revelation that this title’s storyline was triggered by the young school girl inconveniently ‘following her daddy to work’, and presumably discovering just how deep in the illegal narcotics industry the American politician was. Such a ghastly decision to end his own daughter’s life rather than trust her not to talk would potentially have given the elderly statesman a compelling backstory. But in this comic, the white-haired senator disappointingly just cold-heartedly writes the kid off as “a liability”, and even bemoans the fact that her corpse wasn’t disposed of correctly.

Perhaps this book’s biggest problem however, comes with the almost buddy-buddy relationship Schwinn suddenly develops with Alina. The gumshoe has just accidentally gunned down the terrorist’s long-lost brother, and recently been transformed by the woman into a blue-skinned Darksider with a toxic injection. Yet in this twenty-two page periodical’s plot, the pair work together like they’ve been best friends/partners for years, and almost effortlessly take down Brook’s massive “Stardust” empire with just a smattering of bullets.

What does work though is Damian Couceiro’s pulse-pounding pencils, which genuinely capture all the cynicism and grittiness of a harsh, unfair life, where the divide between the rich and poor could not be much greater. In addition, the aforementioned assault upon the Senator’s drug factory is incredibly well-sketched, with Patricio Delpeche’s colours causing the heat from its furnace to genuinely rise off the printed page, and Daniel’s dramatic death appearing suitably poignant for a man haunted by his own offspring’s tragic demise.

Writer: Cory Crater, Artist: Damian Couceiro, and Color Artist: Patricio Delpeche