The art in this is amazing. Let's just get that out of the way. The richness of detail in each panel and perfect pacing of these pages from Sean Murphy are just extraordinary. The book is largely wordless, with all the important beats and rhythms being conveyed visually, so much so that I don't think much would have been lost by eliminating the word balloons altogether.

And some of these pages are simply staggeringly good.  The two page spread of the Veterans cemetery is a bit of a sucker punch.  The three page tour through Joe's house leading to his enviable bedroom conveys so much of what he's afraid of losing if he has to move. And that last two page spread of the world Joe wakes up in with the real life versions of his toys shows how much potential this story could have in Morrison's hands - I particularly hope we get to find out more about the one-legged Captain Picard.

It's hard to know where to credit Morrison exactly when so much of the heavy lifting here has been done by Murphy, but I'm a little astounding by how much exposition and table setting has been accomplished in these few pages with what couldn't have been more than 500 words of word balloons. There's clearly a whole world Morrison has in mind that he's spooning out in tantalizingly small doses.  This book did what all good first books should, hooked me immediately and left me chomping at the bit for both the next issue and the whole arc as quickly as possible.