Mad Cave Studios 2021
Written by Ivy Noelle Weir
Illustrated by Kelly Williams
Coloured by Giorgio Spalletta
Lettered by Justin Birch
Jane and Anya reel from Kamari’s apparent suicide. Planetside, Jonas, and Marnie awaken and prepare to head into the mysterious temple, only to find that Kurt is missing. Pressing on without him, they discover the temple is forgotten and completely abandoned – but their systems show that they may not be alone.
This is a fantastic little book. The idea that kids have been trained to do these very specific jobs to colonise a world so that others can follow and still have time to do the work before they age too far is smart. Dangerous as we see with a few characters as one is too young to control their emotions and another is something of a bully. Not having outgrown the teenage angst years well it’s both interesting and annoying at the same time. Still it adds that certain something to the book, it’s je ne sais quoi if you will, that heightens the drama and the horror of what they are experiencing exponentially. That this is heavily leaning into science fiction horror is another aspect that I’m really enjoying seeing because with this age range we’ve not really seen it done before and it’s breaking new grounds.
I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continues to shape and moold their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the tension builds and the fear is real.
I’m very much appreciative of the way that this is being told and how we see the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way that we see the layers within the story open up new avenues to be explored. Whether these avenues will be explored or not doesn’t really matter because they add all this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.
The interiors here are incredibly interesting. I do wish the linework were a little sharper but it certainly does have enough veritas to it so that it creates the mood, tone and feel throughout the book. The use of backgrounds enhances and expands the moments as well as works within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The creativity and imagination that we see is nicely rendered and particularly within the temple they explore. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.
There is something to be said for this genre that holds infinite possibilities. Should anyone survive this story there’s still the getting to a new planet and trying their best to start the terraforming process or surveying said planet. First they have to unlock the mystery of where they are and how to deal with what is happening around them and that’s exciting in its own right, they are kids after all and facing something that would frighten any adult. With writing that engages the reader and some stellar characterisation alongside these bespoke interiors this is a rip roaring heck of a scary good time.