Rook: Exodus #10 // Review
Under the helmet, his name is Jion. Under the helmet, he’s suffering. He’s also suffering witht he helmet on. With the helmet on he’s known as Stag. He’s being attacked by spiders. He’s not alone, though. There’s another one there with him who is caught in the same web that he is. Things are going to have to get a whole lot more un-mangled and unentangled in Rook: Exodus #10. Writer Geoff Johns and artist Jason Fabok continues a science fiction adventure with colorist Brad Anderson. Rook’s world continues to expand in interesting directions in another satisfying issue.
Jion is in an orchard with Ayame...the woman he loves. But he’s not really there. He’s in a web. Things are at least kind of confusing. He’s in a jumbled and fractured world, but there’s someone else there. Rook is there too. Maybe if Jion can save Rook...maybe Rook can save Jion in a way as well. The man who can control crows and the mane who can control deer are going to have to come to some sort of agreement. They both know that there’s something wrong with one who is controlling the spiders, but they disagree as to how they’re going to handle the situation...
Johns expands the world a bit more. Different personalities control different animals. It's a very deeply personal and interpersonal emotional journey for everybody involved. But then there's also this science fiction thing going on over the top of it all. It speaks to the animalistic nature of humanity. It speaks to the problems with technology. And the inability of humanity to truly harness the forces that it's manipulating in order to advance its own interests. There's a lot of depth to what the author is working with here. The action in the foreground is more important than anything else, though. The deeper end of the themes being explored will continue to take some time to develop on the page.
Fabok is given the opportunity to get very spidery with the work that he's bringing to the page. The arachnids that are rendered into the atmosphere, add considerably to the visual feel of the story. The overall artistic design of the planet Exodus continues to look like a weird, twisting, a very familiar elements. Visually it continues to be quite intriguing on a few different levels. There's a lot of being processed on the page. And it's all very interesting.
There really is just so much that could be explored on the planet Exodus given the basic nature of the premise. There's a lot of different ways that the story could develop with a whole bunch of different characters who are all wardens of different animals. It's a bit frustrating that the story has to play out in such a limited way on such a limited scale for just a few pages per issue. It's not hard to imagine so many different situations that would come into play between so many different wardens that are controlling so many different animals on a planet that is vaguely familiar.
