Thomas Mathers: The Kid Who Had to Go Into the Nest

Thomas Mathers: The Kid Who Had to Go Into the Nest Thomas starts The Library making fun of books. By the end, he's been chased through a labyrinth, helped Hercules, climbed into a giant wasp nest and ended up in the ocean. I think he got a little more out of that library visit than he expected. He's Sela's brother, and their relationship gives this story a lot of its personality. They annoy each other. They argue. Thomas calls her out when she tells their father she made the swim team, because he knows she didn't even try out. She wanted their dad to come see her, and Thomas ruins the attempt right in front of him. Spoilers for The Library #1–5. There's a sadder reason behind all that fighting. Their mother has died, their father is constantly occupied with work, and neither child is getting much attention from him. Sela knows she takes some of her anger at her father out on Thomas. Thomas has his own disappointment about his dad missing lacrosse. They're both living in the same unhappy house, even when they aren't very kind to each other about it. Thomas finds the key that opens the strange book in the library. Sela reads the spell, and things get out of hand very quickly. Thomas is pulled into a book of Greek mythology, where the first welcome he gets is a labyrinth full of old bones and a very large Minotaur with an axe. Hercules becomes his ally, which sounds like a pretty good solution until they reach problems that even Hercules can't solve for him. That's where Thomas becomes more interesting than a kid being escorted through somebody else's adventure. When the witch has Sela, he offers the key in exchange for her freedom. Whatever he said to her earlier, he wants his sister back. Later, retrieving the key takes him and Hercules to a giant wasp nest. Hercules is too big to fit inside. Thomas has to go in himself. I like that choice. The comic has an enormous mythological hero available, but his size creates a limit. Thomas is small enough to get through, so the frightening part of the job falls to him. He gets the key and rides a giant wasp out, which leads to another problem when Hercules knocks the creature down with his club. Thomas lands in the sea and comes back up still holding the key. The adventure keeps going from there, with Captain Nemo and his submarine helping them through the underwater danger. Thomas does make it back. By the end, Hercules praises his bravery, and that feels earned by what we've actually watched him do. He went somewhere his much stronger companion couldn't follow and brought back what they needed. The last family scene is much quieter. They survive, and their father agrees to help restore Ms. Sullivan's library with them. Thomas still has the key. After everything they've been through, keeping it apart from the book is a pretty reasonable precaution. For me, Thomas works because he still feels like Sela's irritating brother while all this is happening. The comic doesn't need to turn him into a miniature warrior to give him something important to do. He's scared, he's in over his head, and when his sister needs help, he tries anyway.