By: Terry Moore (writer/artist/letters)
The Story: The same as it’s been; reincarnated witches menace a small, modern-day town.
Review (with minor SPOILERS): Rachel Rising has been mired in “Act 2” for what seems like a long time. It’s still a very high-quality series and I enjoy each issue, but “we” have understood the broad outlines of the threat facing the town for 5-6 issues now and not much new has really happened: Each issue we learn a little more about Zoe or a little more about Jet or something about Malus, but nothing really happens. These reincarnated witches TALK a big game about vengeance, but we’ve yet to see much really happen beyond the occasional, isolated murder.
This particular issue is mostly review. Sometimes repetition can be annoying, but this felt more like a teacher ensuring that the class understood a basic concept before ripping forward into something new, difficult and exciting. Let’s hope that’s the case and Moore just wants to make sure that everyone is wearing their seatbelts and has their arms and legs inside the vehicle before dropping the clutch.
Even in an issue that doesn’t feature a lot of action or revelations, there is a lot to enjoy about the story/art. It’s amazing how rich and individual the important characters in this series feel. It shouldn’t be surprising that the writer/artist of Strangers in Paradise excels at creating amazing female characters, but I never felt like character-development was as powerful in Moore’s last work (Echo). With Rachel Rising, he’s right back at it. The trio of Jet, Rachel and Johnnie are about as three-dimensional as anything you’d run into in comics today; we feel like we know these characters. There’s a particular scene in this issue where Rachel is showing Johnnie the hole in her stomach from that car accident where Rachel got impaled on a piece of rebar. Since Rachel is basically dead, the wound hasn’t healed. While Rachel is standing there with her shirt pulled up, Jet comes up behind her and peeks through the hole like it’s a peephole in a wall. It’s a really freaky scene. The funny thing is that the panel of this eyeball looking out of Rachel’s stomach is on the right-hand side of the comic, so when you’re reading you kinda see it there and it catches your eye: “What is going on there?!?!? Why is an eyeball looking out of Rachel’s stomach?!??!? What manner of witchery has caused this?!?!?!” But, then you get to the panel in question and realize it’s just Jet acting like Jet. THAT’S how three-dimensional the characters are: You totally accept that panel because it’s exactly how you’d expect Jet to behave. In fact, I almost feel like she showed restraint by not sticking something in the hole as a prank: her finger, a fake flower, a tail off a stuffed animal…
The art is splendid in Rachel Rising. So much of the characterization in this series comes via the art. Part of the reason why we know that Jet is a smart-ass is because of how Moore draws her. But he also do a wonderful job with all the other women. In fact, I think you could make flash-cards of the female characters in RR and show them to non-comic readers and say, “What do you think this person is like?” and they’d probably be able to get most of them correct. The man knows how to draw. Now, let’s see about giving the plot a kick in the pants.
Conclusion: Same as always with RR; the art and characterization are sublime, but the plot is moving very slowly.
Grade: B+
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion