I absolutely loved Life is Strange, and wept alongside the rest of the playerbase when the game’s final episode forced me to choose between saving Max Caulfield’s best-friend-turned-girlfriend, Chloe, or saving her hometown of Arcadia Bay. Like many players, I selfishly chose to save Chloe, and have spent years wondering what the two of them got up to after leaving their destroyed home at the end of the game. As it turns out, that exact scenario is the basis for Titan Comics’ Life is Strange Volume 1: Dust. The first installment of the graphic novel series was initially published back in 2018, and is being re-released as a hardcover Deluxe Edition on Nov. 25.
If, like myself, you were frustrated by the way Life is Strange: Double Exposure handles Chloe, the graphic novel will soothe what ails you. Written by Emma Vieceli and illustrated by Claudia Leonardi, Dust gives us a glimpse into Max and Chloe’s life after the storm. Riddled with guilt, the pair have left Arcadia Bay in favor of Seattle, where they’ve started a new life together. After seeing the destruction caused by Max’s time-rewinding abilities (and the negative effect using those abilities has on Max’s health), the girls have resolved to live life like normal people — no more do-overs.
“Life is what it is, and we’ll take it as it comes,” Chloe asserts.
But after a year of living in Seattle, problems arise. When Max and Chloe attend a pirate-themed costume party, Chloe begins to speak about her mother and stepfather as if they’re still alive. Chloe snaps back to reality pretty quickly, but worryingly has no memory of the conversation about her parents. These strange moments start to happen more frequently, and Max is left with a nosebleed each time, even though she hasn’t been using her powers. After another anomalous conversation (which the girls refer to as a “flicker”) sees Chloe temporarily disappear, the pair decide to head back to Arcadia Bay to try and figure out the source of the trouble.
Interestingly, Dust actually addresses a question I’ve had for a very long time: Did Max’s timeline-altering abilities actually cause the storm that destroyed Arcadia Bay? The game certainly suggests this is the case, but it’s not like the storm swirls up to Max and verbally demands she choose between her girlfriend and her hometown. There’s no conclusive answer — at least not in Volume 1 — but Chloe seems to think the whole thing is bullshit.
“To believe that our shitty personal lives can cause destruction on this level is narcissism,” she states after seeing Arcadia Bay for the first time in a year. She’s got a point.
Life is Strange Volume 1: Dust is everything I wanted Double Exposure to be. Although the first volume doesn’t answer every question, it addresses a lot of the loose ends the first game left waving in the wind, and features fan-favorite characters like Chloe’s late ex, Rachel Amber, whose murder Max and Chloe solve throughout the first game. Instead of ignoring Chloe’s existence by claiming she and Max “grew apart,” the graphic novel series dares to ask (and answer) many of the difficult questions players were left with at the end of Life is Strange. Dust is beautifully illustrated, and the Deluxe Edition also includes several glossy, full-page stills from the game.
Overall, it’s an intriguing page-turner, and although Volume 1 ends on a surprisingly optimistic note, the final sentence of the novel hints at more timeline-altering trouble on the horizon with a familiar refrain from the original game: “This action will have consequences.”
