Rogue Sun #13 // Review
The corpses look like they’re very, very old. So why is it that they’re out on the street wearing the clothing of very young people? There’s an answer to that question: her name is Demonika. She’s grabbed the attention of New Orleans’s greatest hero. She may well learn to wish that she hadn’t in Rogue Sun #13. Writer Ryan Parrott begins a whole new plot with artists Abel and Marco Renna. Color is conjured to the page by Natália Marques. The new plot arc feels interesting enough, but Parrott’s first chapter in the new volume could potentially go in a lot of different directions.
Rogue Sun won’t have a great deal of difficulty dealing with Demonika. She can feast on the souls of the living and leave them looking like they’ve been dead for decades, but she’s no match for someone with the title character’s power. Rogue Sun’s got some other issues to deal with, though. He thought he could work with Dylan. The guy sided with a mass murderer when it looked like he might benefit from it. So, he’s not going to be a reliable ally. What’s a hero to do? Rogue Sun has a choice to make.
Parrott enters the new plot arc with style and poise. Demonika seems like a really appealing villain...and she doesn’t last long here. It’s disappointing to see her taken care of quite so easily. Dylan doesn’t seem quite so interesting. The supporting ally bitter toward the hero has been done before in ways that feel more compelling. It kind of looks like he’s going to be a central part of the action moving forward into Volume 3 of the series. Given where things have been in the first dozen issues of the series, Parrott could take things in quite a few different directions. If he’s committed to following Dylan, he’s going to have to find a way to turn him into a stronger character.
Renna and Abel deliver action to the page with a clean look that serves as a really nice canvas for Marques’s colors. Demonika glides across the page in a way that makes her look like a much more formidable nemesis than she actually turns out to be. Her character design is gorgeous...easily rivaling the coolness of the title character’s look. Marques lights the night of the conflict with little bits of fiery accents that give New Orleans an appealingly hellish kind of magical ambiance. Outside of the magic, the drama might feel a bit flat on the visual end, but there’s more than enough action to make up for the lack of emotional resonance in the visual.
Parrott and Renna are playing with some really fun things in a setting that should be a lot more appealing than it’s coming across on the page. The setting should have more impact than it does, but the central visual appeal of the character and the villains that he’s up against continues to hold a great deal of gravity on the page.
