Discoveries in the deep!
Creative Staff:
Story: Amy Chu
Art: Pasquale Qualano
Colors: Valentina Pinto
Letterer: Thomas Napolitano
What They Say:
Within the ancient city of Thurd, Dejah Thoris finds what she’s looking for with the unlikely help of the green Martian. And a long-forgotten secret of Ephysium comes to light…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Dejah Thoris series so far has been pretty fun if a bit too decompressed for my taste considering how many different things can be done with a younger Dejah. Amy Chu has given her plenty of motivation that gets her out of the capital and to end up with a range of interesting people and she’s tied to some fun characters with Sajad and Karas that are still alive. Pasquale Qualano has another solid installment with the artwork this time around as we dig into the mystery of Ephysium more and I like the spread he gets to play with here and the underwater creature that adds a little something different to how the storyline has played out.
The time spent with Nars has definitely been an interesting angle to play with a reversal of position of sorts and Nars is clearly enjoying it. With him a bit intrigued by what Dejah has presented, it’s welcome to see him talking a bit about the similarities between the greens and the reds in that they all need the same things to survive and they too have stories of the past. With a deep and dark hole in the ground that could lead to where Ephysium may be, it’s a good bit in watching them descend with all the problems along the way. The reinforcement of Sajad as ironclad in the way he’s protecting Dejah and distrusting everyone and everything definitely works very well because it feels more realistic than some other less than firm positions others have had. He’s singleminded in his focus and it’s to Dejah’s benefit, even if it may frustrate her from time to time.
The investigation below is definitely fun in the classic sense in trying to figure out what it is and how far they can go, with Nars helping to blow shit up because progress doesn’t happen otherwise, but it’s not entirely clear that they’ve found Ephysium. They’ve definitely found something further into what’s down there that will help in the long run but the group that went down there is no operating on the same page, since Nars is looking out for his people above all else and is also, well, there with his people not far away compared to Dejah’s people. It’s no surprise that we we see things go south in this area and a lot of danger rising from under the water and all of that makes for some good tension since other than Dejah you know anybody could die as they’ve killed a lot of people so far. And I’ll admit, I’ve grown fond of Sajad and Karas.
In Summary:
Dejah Thoris has a pretty standard bit of movement here in that it works but it’s a bit predictable. The unknown was what they’d actually find below but what they did find was something that could easily have been expected. Amy Chu is delivering in working the characters well and forming the kind of bond between those with Dejah while giving Nars a good bit of material to work with in a superior kind of way. We don’t have a lot of really new information here but it’s fun and nudges it all forward just a bit. It’s definitely a delight to read with Qualano’s artwork as I like how he handles just about everyone here and the backgrounds in general. A solid entry that I hope has some neat and meaty moments coming up soon.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 9th, 2018
MSRP: Free
