When you hope someplace is a sewer, things are not going well.
Creative Staff:
Story: Corrina Sara Bechko, Gabriel Hardman
Art: Gabriel Hardman
What They Say:
Trapped on Apokolips! Diana’s battle with the Female Furies nearly proves fatal, throwing all of her plans into chaos! “Dig for Fire” part 2 of 3.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening part of this three part storyline was a decent one and I was glad to see Sensation Comics change things up a bit and head to Apokalips for a storyline. Darkseid and the place itself has long been one of the more creative aspects of the DC Universe, but it’s also one that has been the hardest to modernize in a lot of ways, similar to Diana in a sense since there are so many writers that just go with tradition and old school style. With the first part, we got Diana to Apokalips on her secret mission, but things went to hell in a handbasket quickly and it didn’t take long for her to face down some Furys, only to end up in the pit itself with the intent of her being burned to a cinder.
But she doesn’t get crispy that easily and instead manages to survive, through a bit of luck at that as there are a group of people that have eked out an existence down below by catching and saving some of the scraps that come through the pits. These folks are interesting in that they know what they’re doing isn’t right, by Darkseid’s law, but they also know that he sees everything. Which we know isn’t true of course, but it’s so ingrained in the people that it’s interesting to see how cowed they are in this way and that Diana can’t break past that. What they do there is an interesting way to survive and it shows another layer to Apokalips and how some of the vast lower caste survives. For Diana though, she’s all about trying to save her comrades since they likely have some valuable intel and some of the things she’s seeing among the scrap, such as a Lexcorp piece of gear, speaks to something going on.
Not surprisingly, Darkseid is displeased by the fact that Diana was executed without his knowledge or being brought before him because he can see the value in a very public execution with her compared to the two spies he already has. I’m almost surprised some of his lackeys aren’t offed right then and there. But that leads us to the other Amazons and their now public execution being setup, which provides Diana with an opportunity to rescue them and lead into its own bit of action. The book moves in an expected way through this, though it left me wondering what more these scrappers down below might play in the storyline and I really wished we had more time with the other Amazons to get a feel for them rather than just being shoved about before things get ready to go really south for them.
In Summary:
The middle installment of the arc hits some decent notes, but what left an impression on me more so was just enjoying Gabriel Hardman’s art style here with his presentation of Apokalips. Granted, it is once again a very dank and dingy place, but the roughness of the style definitely gives it a feeling that works well in creating the proper atmosphere, especially with what Jordan Boyd brings to the table with the color palette used. The story itself is standard fare overall and we’re not getting much in the way of character material or development, but we do get to see Diana in action and that in itself is always a treat to see. Fun stuff overall, but how memorable it will be will depend on the finale and how it all ties together.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 4th, 2014
MSRP: $0.99
