I've only begun to now realize something about these Dark Tower comics: they move so slowly. And yet, strangely, they remain very compelling and I couldn't tell you why.

For instance, what was the plot of this issue? We know Roland is gathering his forces for a stand against John Farson, but no major events occur. That doesn't mean that nothing happens, but it doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things. I could be wrong, however.

The meat of this issue hangs on a raid of an oil field. It seems that some nutjob cult is about to burn some prisoners alive. This cult found an old gas pump and thinks the ancient and long-gone company is a god. Their prisoners were people who also wanted to destroy the oil field as a setback to their enemies, but instead they got captured and will be immolated. That's when Roland and his buddies stage a daring rescue, killing the cult members and saving their new allies from the fire. The destruction of the oil field is another victory for the good guys.

Other than that, we get scraps of plot that will hopefully tie together later. We learn that the wife and child believed dead last issue are actually kept prisoner, while the husband/father is being blackmailed by the baddies. Also, Sheemie is betrayed at the very end of the issue and tries to send off a Jedi-like telepathic message to Roland warning him of the treachery, but the message isn't clearly received. I found this last bit a little confusing. I had no idea there was telepathy in the Dark Tower universe. It seems like too...easy a concept. But then it's been established that Sheemie is a special case, so I guess that's why he can link his mind with Roland.

For me, the best aspect of this issue was the fact that a cult grew up around a long-forgotten gas company. Not only does it make a point about religion and fanaticism, but at the same time it shows (without explicitly telling) an important aspect of Mid-world, that those who lived there a long time ago are more like us than I previously thought. We knew that the ancient dwellers of these lands had robots and lasers, but the civilization could have been anything, anyone in this sci-fi tale. But for some reason, the presence of this gas station really hit home. Since I haven't read any of the Dark Tower books, I don't know who the ancient peoples were, but I'm beginning to wonder if Stephen King means that Mid-world is our regular old Earth in the far distance future, with some fantasy twists. It really got my imagination racing.

So the plot didn't move very quickly, but the oil field sequence was thrilling, so overall this was an enjoyable issue. My biggest complaint lately is that I can't keep track of all these characters in Roland's resistance movement. It was so much easier when it was just Roland and his two buddies, but now they're throwing all these names at me, people with wives and children, and I just don't know who's who. What's worse is that I'm not even sure if they're new characters or whether I'm supposed to remember them from earlier issues. Maybe it's not even important though, at the rate people get killed in this series.

Score