Blood & Thunder #9 // Review
It’s a quiet and. reasonably contemplative moment away from the front line of a brutal and ugly war. Thunder is discussing matters with Oola. Thunder is concerned about Akeldama and what she might be thinking. Relations between the two of them haven’t exactly been the best since Thunder decided to take a vow of pacifism. Oola is an android who is gestating a fetus. Thunder is a talking gun. Their conversation is happening somewhere in the middle of Blood & Thunder #9. Writer Benito Cereno continues a strangely enjoyable and oddly brilliant adventure with artist E.J. Su and colorist Michele Msassyk Assarasakorn.
Elsewhere, Akeldama is dealing with a seriosuly dangerous situation. The good news is that she’s not going to have to deal with it alone. She may not have the aid of Thunder, but she’s got a small army of fierce warriors who wield archaic weapons. The bas news is that the people who are pursuing them have semiautomatic weapons. The good news is that the warriors that Akeldama has with her are swift and deadly. So it just might turn out to be an even match after all. Akeldama is wielding a spiked battle flail, which might not be terribly efficient next to the weapons being pointed at her, but it certainly LOOKS brutal...
Cereno cunningly, contrasts, brutal battle scenes between organic organisms against more deeply emotional conversation that's going on between artificial intelligences. It's an interesting contrast that makes for a deeply thoughtful sort of an experience. And a while, the action is incredibly intense, the more nuanced absurdist drama fuels every bit as compelling. The gun that's decided to become a pacifist is remarkably clever stuff. There's no question that it's been done before in someway in science fiction and fantasy before. It's just really cool that it's being presented again in a clever way that Cereno lowers-into a very enjoyable story.
Cerno gives the art team a bit of a challenge. Compounds with archaic weapons are meant to appear much more formidable than people with modern weapons. It's kind of hard to pull that off in a way that feels satisfyingly real. To their credit,Su and Msassyk make it look believable. And then to have the more deeply emotional ends of the story brought across with a couple of robotic entities? THAT’s a pretty remarkable challenge. Su frames the drama in a way that feels very swollen and somber and reflective without really needing to render in motion in a way that would be more traditional to humanoid characters. Msassyk’s colors cast the moment in a cool, restful shadow. It's pretty brilliant work.
Given the way, this series started, it didn't necessarily seem like it was going to be going in a direction that was going to be nearly as beautiful and deeply weird as it has. There's a lot of deeply interesting fanatic exploration going on in the course of the series that feels remarkably well articulated. It can be difficult to cover the themes that.Cereno and company are covering in a way that feels novel, but they’re doing a hell of a job with it.
