Figment # 4 (Journey Into Imagination Part Four)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our look at Figment as we pull in towards the home stretch as we look at the fourth issue.  

Cover

I really love this cover.  It's really dark and ominous.  The art on here is just fantastic and the look on Blair's face as he goes for grab for that orb just shows the despair that is going through his face.


The Plot


We open on a recap of the last three issues and the story begins anew with narration from Blair as talks about his past.

When I was young, I wanted to travel. I imagined myself as a courageous explorer seeking out fantastic places. Overcoming any challenges that got in my way. Those childhood daydreams always ended with me victorious and safe. Unfortunately... reality is a bit more difficult. My Mesmonic Convertor brought us to a strange dimension of dreams... and now we've found the nightmares that come along with it.  

We see our heroes are still falling into The Nightmare Nation and Figment tells Fye to grab hold of his tail but it is of no use as our heroes are separated and this is what The Nightmare Nation wanted. I imagine that The Nightmare Nation thinks it'll be easier to break them, if they're apart. Figment is scared but Fye says to not let the nightmares overwhelm him. And then in a strange scene, we see our characters falling alongside children's building blocks.  As Blair falls into an ocean of water, though he is able to stay afloat by boarding a giant book. Okay, this issue is getting weird... and I like it.   Though,  Tales of Terror probably wasn't the best book to board but I'm guessing the Nightmare Nation has limited options.  And Blair fears that he'll never make it home.  And on the next page, we are shown London and I'm not too sure that Blair would want to return there.

As it's complete chaos and madness as The Singular's army appears to have overthrown London and we see buildings on fire and the robots tells the cops that they are agents of chaos and they are here to bring order.  The army want to fix every little mistake that they see, even if it isn't that much if an issue.  The Singular says that it's impressive but the Chairman is terrified.  The Singular spots Buckingham Palace and decides that they should overtake it and will issue commands to the citizens of Lon-don because he feels that the these people must understand order.  While The Singular is giving his evil villain speech,  we see The Chairman put on the helmet for Blair's invention but he's caught and The Singular doesn't take to being defied too well.  And he slaps The Chairman pretty hard.  And we get another pretty intense speech from The Singular.

You cannot stop what has begun, Chair-man. Nor should you want to.  You called for "order" from deep within your mind. I responded.  ...  The Singular is absolute order. This is what you asked for.

Oh, that's not good.  But it ties back into the line from the second issue, where The Chairman was trying to turn off the machine and demanded complete order.

Without control, there is only chaos.  Therefore chaos must be eliminated.   

The Singular's plan has been pretty obvious from the get go.  From there, we cut back to Blair and The Nightmare Nation informs him that he is lost and well thank you for stating the obvious.  Though The Nightmare Nation continues to berate Blair saying that he has failed.  And that he will always be a failure.  Blair gives into what The Nightmare Nation is saying and starts to buy into what The Nightmare Nation is saying.  And this line from Blair breaks me.

Everything I do is a failure. 

As someone that has felt that way,  I can just say that you can't let yourself think like this.  If you let failure overtake you, you will lose to it.  We next see Fye and The Nightmare Nation is starting to break our little sprite friend.  As they trap Fye in musical notes.  Saying that he doesn't fit in and he'll never fit in.  And this causes Fye to apologize for his existence.



We next see The Chimera but the old gal fights back but it's not enough.  And next, we come to Figment and oh boy, this isn't going to be good. The Nightmare Nation tells Figment that there is no hope.  Figment says that there is always hope.  The Nightmare Nation tells Figment that he isn't even real.  And this starts to shake Figment.

That... that's not true. I'm real as long as Blair believes in me! 

The Nightmare Nation says that Blair doesn't believe in anything anymore. Ouch!   And just as he says Figment pops out of existence.  We cut back to Blair beating himself up with memories of superiors berating for his failures. We cut to a few panels later and a purple little orb informs Blair that he just has to use his imagination.  And it's Figment.  Yay... they've been reunited.   And this restores Blair's faith and we get a great narration from him that I've taken to heart.

Some people as it is is. They believe the environment around is static,  immutable and that setbacks are a sign they should settle for what they have. I prefer to think of the world as it could be. It's a journey to create something bigger and better. If I don't try, I'll never how big it could be. 

And it is with this speech and finding Figment that Blair becomes the Dreamfinder.

This moment is just so awesome.  And this is when Blair  Dreamfinder tells Figment that he is his spark of inspiration as he's helped Dreamfinder's wildest dreams come true. Dreamfinder informs Figment that  they need to find Fye and The Chimera but Figment has no idea as to how but Dreamfinder shows him how as he throws an orb into the sky.  And just like that,  our Dreamfinder and Fimgnet find Fye and tell him not to be afraid as they are here to save him.  Fye is scared beause he's all messed up but Dreamfinder tells Fye that they like him, just the way he is. And then they find The Chimera and are happy to see that she's okay.  And with that they escape The Nightmare Nation. And they escape back to Earth and well, Dreamfinder is happy to be home at first but then they see what The Singular has done to London and our comic ends there.  While, I still think that  the third issue is a better issue,  this was a great follow up.



Characters


Main Characters


Blair (Dreamfinder)


Blair finally steps up and truly becomes The Dreamfinder.  It took him fighting his worst fear, that being failure to realize his fullest potential and worth. And he really stepped up to the plate here.




Figment



This is the first time that we saw Figment almost break but he came back and he saved Blair and helped Blair in becoming The Dreamfinder. Which is important as it shows how much these two need one another.





Supporting Characters



The Chairman


The fact that The Chairman brought The Singular into Earth goes to show that no one is perfect and that everyone can make mistakes. Even those that hold themselves to a higher standard.



Fye


We really didn't get much of Fye in this issue as this was all about Blair but it was important to show that he is an important part of this team.




The Chimera

Once again, there wasn't much of The Chimera in this issue but she is still adorable.





Villains


The Nightmare Nation


The Nightmare Nation was represented as being the voices of failure inside a person's head coming to life in the real world. They may have just been words but we saw how effective they were in almost breaking our heroes. They knew what to say to them to press the right buttons to break them.



The Singular


The Singular is really stepping up his game here and proving to be a huge threat and it's interesting to see that while he wants order and rid this world of chaos, he is bringing chaos in his reign to bring order.



My Final Thoughts


While this issue isn't as good as the third issue but I still did like it.  It was great to see Blair becoming Dreamfinder as the mini series has building towards that moment and it felt truly rewarding to see it happen.  While I didn't like this issue as much as the last one, it does have me excited for the finale.  Join me next time as we look at fifth and final issue in this mini series.