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DC’s The Nice House on the Lake re-invents apocalyptic fiction with a tragically sentimental twist and a heart-breaking alien infiltration story.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Nice House on the Lake #3, on sale now from DC.
Comics have a long-standing fascination with the apocalypse, and the opportunities those stories afford to showcase the devastation and upheaval that happens when the world ends. The Nice House on the Lake sets itself apart from the usual tropes by focusing instead on the emotional responses of characters who are spared the destruction and forced to witness the horror from afar.
The comic follows ten people, all connected by their friendship to a man named Walter, who agree to join him for a week-long vacation at a lake house. That evening, one of them checks her phone and discovers that the world is ending–and that Walter knew this would happen.
The comic provides a unique re-imagining of apocalyptic fiction. Characters watch on TV and Twitter as the world live-streams its gruesome demise, people talking into their cameras as their bodies burn and melt. But Walter’s friends at the lake house are spared. He explains that he wanted to save them from what “[his] people” were going to do to the Earth. The friends can’t leave, but they can live the rest of their lives in this beautiful house, which has everything they could ever need. The grounds contain additional mysteries, and the story’s true nature is revealed in The Nice House on the Lake #3 by James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire, and Andworld Design.
This issue follows Sam Nguyen, a reporter who met Walter in high school. Walter was apparently gifted in convincing people to reveal their secrets. When Sam came out as gay, Walter was the first person he told. But in the present, Sam’s grief turns to restlessness when he realizes that the house is a prison. In fact, the entire area is sealed off by an invisible force field. It’s also dotted with strange sculptures that allow people to glimpse the outside world.
Sam traces the limits of the force field with a stick. He draw the statues and takes notes on them. At one point, he tries speaking to Walter through the sculptures, growing increasingly upset until he is screaming, crying, and pounding his fists into it. From the other side, someone shouts back, but Sam doesn’t hear them.
While the alien invasion that devastated the world is horrific, it is only seen in glimpses. The more immediate horror is the despair and confusion characters grapple with as they try to make sense of their new fate, and their history with Walter.
Each issue opens with a different character narrating events to the reader from some point in the future as the world burns behind them. They reflect on their friendship with Walter. The first such character is a woman named Ryan Cane. Text boxes in the comic include Walter’s personal notes, which identify Ryan as “the Artist” and describe her as part of the “New York Cluster.” Other details include when they met (five years ago) and when Walter chose her (six months back.) Each character is similarly labeled. For example, Sam is called “the Reporter” and is from both the High School Cluster and New York Cluster.
Walter seems to have genuinely loved his friends, as he actively worked to save them. But his notes also categorize his friends, putting them into different sections. Walter was part of the alien invasion that destroyed the world, but he also invaded the personal lives of these people. He convinced Sam and the others to open up about themselves (hence why Sam came out to him first). He also was curious about his friends’ personal thoughts. For example, he regularly discussed hypothetical apocalypses with Ryan. Furthermore, Walter inspired loyalty. Rick McEwan (“the Pianist”) continued to secretly aid Walter even after the world ended, doing so out of love.
Walter understood how to build community. He made people feel loved and exploited this feeling, learning their innermost thoughts. The alien attack might have ended the world in the present day, but the invasion began long ago when Walter first started making contacts and infiltrating social circles back in high school.
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