Written by Scott Snyder
Art by Tony S. Daniel, Tomeu Morey
Published by Image Comics
Valentina, her brother Emory, and Bailey have arrived at the Sanctuary – the fabled place that Gus, the old man, hired “Sundog” the ferryman to take him and his granddaughter to.
And it turns out to be as real as Gus said it was, before he was captured and killed by the fearsome Blacktop Bill.
Well, presumably he is killed.
The last we saw Gus, he was harpooned and strapped to the roof of Bill’s car, crying “kill me” with whatever humanity was left in him as he turned into a shade.
I’m guessing the story will circle back to him.
Anyway, back to the current issue.
We meet Gus’ twin brother, Tiberius, who operates the Sanctuary. He’s actually real. And the powerful, sun-like light, called Lux, also is real. Emory is healed from the shade infection.
And Val has to admit that hope won in the end. Because she’s standing in the very place she thought was a pipe dream.
If the Sanctuary is real, and the Lux light is real, are the rest of Gus’ teachings real, too? Is this really part of a war between light and dark and supernatural, or alien, forces?
After four previous issues in which Val cast herself as the hardened soul and Emory was the sensitive hopeful, this issue sees the roles reversed. She’s burning to stay, and Emory wants to leave. But where she’s hardened by trauma, Emory is hardened by resolve to keep fighting the dark for humanity or life isn’t worth living to him.
It’s a solid piece of storytelling on Scott Snyder’s part, even if the argument between him and Val feels too shouty to feel real. (That may be me, because I rarely think the dialog in fictional arguments sounds real.)
Of course, standard storytelling says the Sanctuary must be too good to be true, and Snyder is hard-pressed to get out from under that familiar beat.
Tony Daniel’s art in this issue irks me, in that the character designs feel too standard comic-booky in the way he draws and depicts Val. Like he has to be sure to capture that elongated torso and limbs of the waifu look, and how many times is Val drawn from behind with a pert behind in what look like yoga pants.
Worse, he then replicates this look for young teenage Bailey, just with less in the chest and hips, but similar wrinkle-less faces.
This issue is the penultimate in the first arc of the series. Let’s hope for better next time.
