Red Roots #4 // Review
Dante wakes-up in a pool the he shares with a few non-human bodies. The first thing he hears is the voice of another human telling him that he’s fine. They told her to wait for him. They told her that he was going to be okay. He might not be feeling great, but considering the fact that he was more or less dead before he went into the pool, he’s doing quite well. He’s still got so much to learn in Red Roots #4. Writer/artist Lorenzo De Felici answers a few questions about the world of the series in another provocative issue.
Katherine is a biology teacher. Dante is a soldier. As they talk, they begin to wonder whether or not they might be dead. Actually, they’re not dead. They’re in The Dam. It’s a strange space inhabited by a whole bunch of people who are either fighting a never-ending war or serving as some kind of support for it. They came there by way of a red root...an apparently living thing which snatches people from where they are and bings them to serve in the conflict. It’s a pretty brutal existence, but there’s always food and the health care seems to be pretty miraculous.
De Felici delivers a whole lot of foundational information about the world of Red Roots without making it seem like some long-winded fantasy history text. It’s just a lot of backstory, but De Felici manages to keep it remarkably interesting as it’s related to Dan and Kate on a walk through The Den. Dan and Kate both seem like really interesting people. They’re largely relatable as they deal with a unique kind of fantasy hell that has a personality all its own. The world is fantastic, but it all hums with a life that feels so very internally consistent in every way.
The overall architectural design of The Den is actually really impressive. De Felici combines a bunch of different design elements into something that really feels like it has itss own distinct life. That goes a long way towards making the world of The Den feel distinct and distinctly charming. The drama brought to the page feels engaging enough regardless of what the characters look like. And what with it being the case that Dan and Kate are the only humans, it can feel more than a little strange, but never dull.
As charming as it is, The Den IS a kind of hell. And so Dan and Kate are in an unenviable place. Four issues in and Red Roots is already feeling a lot like a kind of fantasy misery tourism. The provocative nature of The Den shows some depth. It’s difficult to read the story and not imagine being forced into a similar situation to Dan, Kate or anyone else who had been dragged there by fate, bad luck or somethign else entirely. Even with so much revealed, there are still so many questions..and so the mystery maintains...
