Art by: Johnnie Christmas
Published by: Image Comics
No. Just no. Quite simply Sheltered #15 is one of the reasons why the comic industry, on occasion, annoys me. You have a story, it has a plot, possibly not the most original or daring, but a plot. 
The structure of the story is a limited one, it is not one that can roll on with endless variation; there is a finite essence to Sheltered. The real problem I have with this issue is that the story finished in #14. Why put together a limp issue to pad out the series a little? And that is just what you get here.
The grim and fatalistic Sheltered was always destined to reach an end point, with the set up of the events at ‘Safe Haven’, with the intervention of the Government, it was guaranteed that the ending of this series was not going to be too far away. With the assembled characters and their associate dramas, the material was stretched as long as possible. Issue 14 was the natural ending to the series, the drama was played out, blood was spilt, the long awaited for confrontation came about and that was that. This issue, however, in an attempt to tie up loose ends, to flesh out the closure of the previous issue, is a comic too far. Whatever dramatic impetus has been garnered by the events in the last issue, whatever the benefit wrought by the natural conclusion to the story, has been blown apart by this limp issue. We are not interested enough in the remaining characters to care about what comes next, spewing this over the issue was an error.
While there have been some good moments in the series, Sheltered, as a social commentary, has been a moderate success. The main interest in the story has always been seeing the natural conclusion to the story play out. The grim finality, set against the harsh and bitter landscape, has been quite effective. The art has been quite varied, at times interesting, but at other moments you feel that it could have been sharper. Some of the facial work could have been stronger.
