Twig #5 // Review
A little blue furry hero is so close to completing his quest, but it might be just out of the reach of his cute, little black fingers as Twig reaches its final issue. Writer Skottie Young closes out his initial adventure with Twig in a climactic chapter that is beautifully brought to the page by artist Kyle Strahm and colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu. Young and company’s adorably endearing variation on the journey of a single hero cuddles itself to a close with a delightfully quirky sense of humor. Though there isn’t much here that is truly original, there’s more than enough in the world of Twig to make it worth the journey.
Twig and his friends have made it pretty far. Twig and his little, yellow slug friend have made a friend in the rhino-like purple creature Lobee, who is more than happy to sacrifice himself for the good of the world. Twig needs to make a magical placement. To do so, he needs Lobee’s sacrifice. He may get it a bit prematurely as a sinister, green, eyeless biped confronts them with a vicious-looking, razor-sharp melee weapon. Things might seem lost, but Twig might learn that there’s hope even when all seems lost.
Young’s playful twisting of the traditional fantasy hero’s journey is a welcome one. There’s real danger in Twig’s world, but he doesn’t solve problems through aggression, even when a combative situation is presented to him. An action story with a hero not given to traditional action is a hell of a lot more challenging to write than it might seem. Young brings a quest to an end in a very dramatic way while managing to conjure characters who have great emotional resonance without actually having the benefit of a whole lot of time or space on the page.
Strahm has a great deal of work to do in only a few panels without much dialogue. Young trusts Strahm with the task of rendering SO much of the story. Thankfully, Strahm has a really vivid vision for a world that feels like a particularly appealing cross between Dr. Seuss and Jim Henson. There’s real drama and nuance in Twig’s face as he deals with panic, sadness, happiness, wonder, and so much more. The emotional rollercoaster that the little hero undergoes is carefully placed in a world that has a very rich depth to it thanks to Beaulieu’s colors.
At issue’s end, it is promised that “Twig Will Return.” Young, Strahm, and Beaulieu have a lot of different options for further series that could be placed in the world of the fuzzy, blue hero. It’s been rendered with such love and care that it would seem kind of strange to allow it to end at only five issues. Young’s particular twist on the story of the hero makes for an interesting view on the traditional high fantasy story. There are heroes...and then there are heroes behind the heroes. Twig’s particular place in that ecosystem of adventure fantasy would be fun to have a little bit more time with in the future.
