By: Terry Moore (writer/art/letters)
The Story: As the action bounces back to the present, Rachel, Jet & Zoe start to learn some new things about themselves.
Review (with SPOILERS): To use an English football saying, Rachel Rising is “in a nice run of form.”
Before these last couple of issues, we’d had a 4-5 month span where the comic was still good, but seemed to be lingering in Act II for quite a long time. Then Boom! We got last issue which taught us a lot of the backstory to the series. Now #20 has captured that momentum and applied it to our present-day story. I’m really tickled with the direction of the series right now.
So many things are clearer now that we understand a little more about the past. For one thing, I’d always kinda wondered why Rachel was set apart from the other reincarnated witches. Even accounting for the fact that Rachel didn’t have any memories of the past, she never really seemed to be part of the group. Well…..now we know that this is because Rachel is the reincarnation of Bryn Erin. From what we learned last issue, Bryn Erin wasn’t really part of Lilith’s group, but Lilith was being persistent in trying to recruit Bryn Erin. She acted almost like it was important that Bryn Erin join them to fully realize her powers. And then, before Bryn Erin could make any decisions about her future, the “Salem Witch Trial” happened and the ladies all died. So, Bryn Erin wasn’t (yet) a part of Lilith’s group in the past, and it appears she isn’t part of that group now either. There’s some interesting dynamic to be played out now that Rachel understands what is going on. I almost wonder if last issue was a vision that Rachel had while passed out in Aunt Johnny’s home. Did her (whole) life flash before her eyes or something?
And then you have Jet/James… James was really just an innocent bystander to the whole “Salem Witch Trial”. His only crime was that he was a sorta-boyfriend to Bryn Erin and he caught a stray bullet while trying to help her escape. And, of course, Jet has been touched by Malus as well, so “she” is in a weird place. I just have a feeling that Lilith probably wasn’t the type of coven leader who really enjoyed earnest boyfriends much… I’ll bet that in Lilith’s mind boyfriends just caused her followers to act foolishly, put flowers in their hair and eventually have babies and leave the coven. Lilith is probably a “sisters before misters” kinda girl. But, that’s just speculation on my part.
The only part of this story that I don’t quite see the connection with is Zoe/Malus. I really, really enjoy the story of Zoe, but I just don’t know how she connects to Lilith and Rachel. The whole concept of Zoe being some sort of finely bred murderer from a lineage that includes Jack the Ripper and numerous other baddies, and that the murder weapon itself has been passed down as well… And that Malus has guided this whole process… It’s certainly an interesting dynamic to watch. I know there was some hope that once Zoe became free of Malus, that she would get to be a regular little girl, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I also wonder what will become of Malus now that he is hostless again?
The art is (again), incredibly strong. It isn’t really surprising either since Terry Moore has been pumping out high quality work for so long now. You almost start to take him for granted because he seems able to just grind out these issues. What I think I like most about Moore’s work is that each of these characters has their own look. While it is true that we’ve seen some of these basic character shapes in other works of Moore’s, he still has a greater diversity of “real” humans that he can draw than most other artists. I bet he has a sort of character sheet for each of them somewhere near his drawing table and that if we went back to Rachel Rising #1, the characters wouldn’t look appreciably different. About the only nitpick I have with Moore’s art in this issue is that he doesn’t totally kick ass at drawing dogs. It’s not a bad dog, but he could tighten that up, and then the issue would be just about perfect.
Conclusion: The story in Rachel Rising is really engaging right now. If you dropped away while this book was in its teens, it’s probably a good idea to come back now.
Grade: A-
– Dean Stell
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Conclusion