The tests continue.
Creative Staff:
Story: G. Willow Wilson
Art: Christian Ward
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
What They Say:
After her shocking discovery of religious corruption, Vess must choose between quiet obedience in the monastery and deafening truth . . . in exile. Meanwhile, Grix learns that Lux will stop at nothing to keep her newfound knowledge from leaking, and decides to make a break for it. Both women might feel terribly alone—but not for much longer.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sometimes when you start a new book there’s that sense of the world building going on around you as you move through the pages. The first issue of Invisible Kingdom was one where it felt like this has all been existing for some time and we’re just now being exposed to it. G. Willow Wilson brought us into storylines in progress and it worked well to track both forward and backward in order to understand it all. And Christian Ward delivered it so beautifully through the artwork that you wanted to explore every nook and cranny in order to it all the more. I loved all of the designs for the characters, the ships, the entire religious side of it as all if felt tantalizing and for specific reasons.
At the moment, Vess’ story is the one that’s still of greater interest to me even as we see signs of how the two storylines will connect. She struggled hard to get to the monastery and seeing some of those early decisions in a flashback here just cements that for the reader, both in the personal journey side and what she left behind in regards to her people. But coming across those numbers in the book with Mother Proxima taking money from Lux just pushed her too far and having her question her is a pretty tense moment. It’s still unclear just how much of how this plays out is actually a test or not as Proxima says, but she provides herself the out and for Vess as well so that they can move forward if Vess goes along with it. Considering her nature, it really is uncertain because she wants to believe but she has a hard time seeing past what’s right there in front of her.
With Grix and the crew, their discovery has those who know really trying to handle the situation without letting it spread. Grix is doing his best to just get the job done, play it off as casually as he can, and not let anyone else know outside of Xether. They run into a lot of problems with that since they’re so late and there are questions and eyes on them, enough so that they’re drawn into a serious questioning period. That has Elina trying to figure out what’s being hidden by Grix so as to protect the crew as well as corporate since that’s her main job. I love how tense it is as they’re brought planetside to meet with a “predator” named Prime and how surviving that has Grix just wanting to get offworld as quickly as possible. There are a lot of complicated pieces to this and I imagine I’d be more invested in it if it was the only storyline in the book, particularly since I’m still trying to grapple with who everyone is and get some understanding of them.
In Summary:
I’m really enjoying Invisible Kingdom a whole lot and I’m really hoping that there’s a couple dozen issues plotted out for it as I’d like to invest some real time and enjoyment into it, both for writing and artwork as presented so far. There’s so much to explore and what little taste we have so far has me wanting more of all of it. This issue again works better for me when it comes to Vess and Proxima as I want so much more story for both and I’m also growing more and more on Grix and the crew with what they’re doing. But that side needs a little more focused attention and simply time in order to really connect well. There are a lot of different things that are going to come crashing into both storylines soon and it already feels enticing and exciting. This issue helps build on that a whole lot.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics / Berger Books
Release Date: April 24th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
