Best Comic of the Week:
Ginseng Roots #8 – Since Craig Thompson started this series, which explores his childhood helping farm ginseng, but also stretches like the fine tendrils of a root, into all sorts of other things, I’ve been impressed with this book. This issue is particularly touching, as Thompson gives it over to Chua, the Hmong farmer we met in the last issue, and his story. Last time, we saw how Chua’s childhood contrasted with Craig’s, and now we see what adulthood has been like for him, as he followed his father into the industry. Chua’s father passed about five years ago, and the loss has been huge for Chua and the local Hmong community. Parallel to this is the continued shrinking of ginseng in the region, as farming it becomes ever more difficult and expensive at the same time that it becomes ever harder to find people willing to put in the long hard hours the root requires. There’s an elegiac quality to this whole series, but especially to this i
What They Say:
After a hellish journey on the road to vengeance, Ketsuko is now within a blade’s length of ending those who brought about her clan’s demise. But a shocking twist unmasks not only the Red Bride, but her true enemy!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Devil’s Red Bride has been a really good book over the course of the first three issues and this one builds on all that came before very well. Sebastian Girner takes us further down Ketsuko’s path and gives us a twist, one many likely saw coming, and provides her with another kind of challenge to deal with. The scripting continues to be engaging and the dialogue works really well. John Bivens designs have been great throughout this series and that doesn’t let up here at all, whether it’s dealing with flashback material or a new dose of the supernatural that has made its way into events, twisting and distorting things dangerously.
Best Comic of the Week:
Tartarus #8 – Ten years pass over the course of this issue, as Surka puts her plan into action to get back home to Tartarus. It’s just that her plan involves her first taking control of the solar system she’s found herself in. Her new partner, Svantoo, is a lot more than he seems at first, and might be as reluctant as we are led to believe. I love how Johnnie Christmas has built this arc, which takes us into very unexpected territory, and makes it clear that there is a lot planned for this series that is still to come. It’s another of my current favourite comics.
Best Comic of the Week:
SWORD #1 – I’ve been looking forward to this series since I first heard it was launching. Al Ewing brings Abigail Brand back in charge of SWORD, only now it’s Krakoa’s space agency. Ewing has a lot of qualities that remind me of Jonathan Hickman, and he embraces Hickman’s tendency to over-organize and think of things in terms of systems. The Peak, the space station where this series takes place, is run by ‘The Six’, a group of mutants whose abilities complement one another the way the Five’s do in the resurrection chambers on Krakoa, giving the mutants a serious presence in space. Magneto is our POV character here, giving us the lay of the land, but it is the rest of the cast that has me excited. We’ve got (young) Cable, Manifold, and Frenzy in key positions, supported by mutants like Lila Cheney, Armor, and Random. For people who love deep cuts, we’ve also got Peeper, formerly of the Mutant Force. This book acknowledges the