New twists reveal that there’s more to Vanessa.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mario Mentasti
Art: Ben Herrera
Colors: Emanuel Ordaz Torres
Letterer: Justin Birch
What They Say:
Sent to investigate a location inside Ammon’s domain, Vanessa and Monty encounter more than what they were expecting, as servants of another Infernal Archduke are infringing on Ammon’s turf. This encounter will wake up lost memories for Vanessa, who will have to wrestle with the traumas of her past while at the same time facing off against the dangerous cultists of the Crimson Order. Vanessa and Monty will wage battle through the old sewers of the city, aiming to exterminate the intruders while finding out the reason for their invasion.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Obey Me has been an interesting bit of fun to read as it’s not like most of the other books I pick up and check out. There’s something just a little different about it and that’s beyond its ties to the videogame. Mario Mentasti has been having fun with it as the various pieces of how it’s all put together are revealed and it’s building to some decent reveals I suspect that will naturally put Vanessa in the right place at the right time. Similarly, Ben Herrera feels like he’s getting more confident and comfortable with the characters and settings with each installment as we see more dynamic action elements and some smoother layouts that works the flow very well with the panel design. It’s appealing and enjoyable to go through this book and it’s now starting to feel like it has some stakes to it.
With this issue, we see Vanessa and Monty called in for a new assignment their boss only to see Ors leaving before them, not knowing he had been chastised by Ammon himself. The meeting the two have is interesting enough in that they learn that some of Satan’s minions have come to the world and are causing problems but that they should be easy enough to find because they’re loud. What surprises is that Ammon himself shows, in shadows, for a brief minute to relay the general importance of what they’re doing. This doesn’t trigger anything for Vanessa, though she’s shocked by the moment, but it does open her up a bit more mentally as the story goes forward. The problem is that when she sees the Satanists out there with their robes, she has flashbacks to her own “conversion” and a reminder that she had it wiped from her mind as well as being minimally trained at best. This makes her somewhat broken as she has PTSD induced freeze-up moments now amid the fight that gets underway.
The fight itself comes because of what these particular minions are doing in that they’ve captured a Saint. They’re basically the equivalent of what Vanessa is but with more power imbued in them as agents of the guy above. That the Satanists captured one and is torturing him is surprising as hell to Monty but we also learn that they’re usually watched over by Cherubim, your basic “baby” angel. Amusingly, he’s not sensing that but we do see that one is in existence and watching from just outside of his view. It’s an interesting sequence overall with some good action elements to it but it’s more that it’s layering a bit more mystery to events as the narrative is possibly taking more shape here. I like what we get in seeing Vanessa and Monty working together more but also in seeing how Monty is getting frustrated by how she keeps freezing up.
In Summary:
Obey Me continues to be a fun little book with what it’s doing and it feels like a throwback to a lot of the independent books I used to read in the late ‘80s with neat ideas but not exactly the clearest of intentions of where it’s going. Mentasti continues to work some good character material here and I like the expansion on the world that we get this time around with the Saints and Cherubim. I also like getting more of Vanessa’s past as that opens up a few more potential plot connections to deal with. Herrera’s artwork continues to be solid with what he’s doing here as the action’s pretty fun and I love the expressiveness of the cast in general, especially that early meeting at Ammon’s office. I’m curious to see where this is going – and how long it’ll actually run.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 5th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99