After Dr. Alloy's rampage in the previous issue, both he and Goon find themselves doing time behind bars at Cade's Island Maximum Security Island. Seen only once before when Alloy was released in The Goon #2, Cade and its inmates are drawn from a rich history of archetypes in fiction, film, and music about prisons, the hardass prisoners that occupy them, and the beat-down dog despair of such places. Look for references to prison movies like Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and Papillon (1973), which are crossreferenced with badass anti-heroes like Dirty Harry and the Folsom Prison Blues tunes of Johnny Cash. Looking like Alcatraz, if Alcatraz were surrounded by shark-infested waters and kept monsters from The Evil Dead (1981) in the basement, Cade Prison jumps right out the pastiche of the American tradition of prison escape films, gangster movies, pulp fiction, and horror comics that the Goon and the rest of his rouges owe their lineage. Eric Powell's decision to delve into Cade, even if briefly, makes for a great issue that reinforces the tone and atmosphere and dark humour that I love about this series.

        On the topic of atmosphere, you may recall that in recent reviews I have had some negative things to say about Powell's new art style, but this time around I have (mostly) nothing but good things to say. In keeping with the grimy, cold, and dank tone of prison films, Powell's new reliance on pencil shading, washed out colours, and blotchy water colour backgrounds really serves the story this time around. I still miss the tarnished as opposed to washed out colours of previous issues, and the distinct inkwork, but here the new style really works. The prison is murky and unpleasant, it's inhabitants stone-faced and ruthless or hollow and downtrodden, and Goon looks meaner than ever. An especially good example is a large panel showing Goon wailing on a prisoner who tried to stab him, and Powell's emphasis on the Goon's face and hand shading brings out his scars and veins, while the washed out colour of his skin, which is basically grey, stands out vibrantly from the violence of the blood caking his knuckles. The new style also suits the character design of the warden. With a pallid face and sagging jowls behind goggles, a nose guard, and a stiff neck brace held by straps screwed into his head, the warden looms in the background looking all the monstrous as Goon's other foes. Since it is mentioned that Goon has spent some time in Cade before, it might be reasoned that Goon had some hand in the warden's current state.

        Where the new style doesn't work, however, is in the depiction of Dr. Alloy. Having skin of gold, Dr. Alloy should look shiny, reflective, and metallic. The new style, which tends away from bright colours, leaves Alloy looking dull and soft, not metallic. The shading, instead of making him look properly shaded leaves him looking dirty and smudged. I think Dr. Alloy suffers.

        Also introduced in this issue are the Little Unholy Bastards, a group of kids from the McGreg Home for Illegitimate, Wayward, and possibly Homicidal Youth who certainly live up to the name. These kids, with their beady black eyes, look like any number of urban kids from comics in the 20s, 30s, and 40s like Little Lulu, Hogan's Alley, and The Kin-der-Kids, but more vicious, twisted, and funny in a way that could only come from Powell's mind. While others might balk at the introduction of kid sidekicks into a series like this, they fit the tone of the book, and I look forward to seeing them included in the roster of Goon's supporting cast of social rejects.