The pacts are set and the choice to destroy is almost made.
Creative Staff:
Story: Joe Corallo
Art: Liana Kangas
Colors: Rebecca Nalty
Letterer: Melanie Ujimori
What They Say:
Fey has been taken by Brigid and her Light Knights! Raul and Iris are under house arrest, as Vrixton plans to give the witches a choice between renouncing their phantom god or willfully embracing oblivion. Meanwhile, Winona believes they’ve summoned The Morrigan, but is it too late to save her people from Brigid’s final act of purification?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While She Said Destroy has had a few shortcuts along the way where the reader has to fill in some of the blanks, the book has definitely been a whole lot of fun. It’s so steeped in a history that you can imagine that you want to see the past explored as much as the present. Everything is building well with the story to a final confrontation and that gives Liana Kangas plenty to work with from Joe Corallo’s scripts. There are a lot of big ideas playing about in this but it’s also kept pretty straightforward and easy to navigate since it boils down to misguided ideas of good and evil, two opposing sides when they really just complement each other.
The exploration of the past does come in the form of showing the promise of Winona as a baby as they opted to make her the one that could help save The Morrigan and her people. With that time having now come, she’s bonded with her in full, giving of herself everything. Winona is no long Winona but rather a blending of her and The Morrigan, though the two are separate on the inside where they communicate in her mind. This is pretty fascinating to watch as The Morrigan reveals that she’s the one that’s serving here, that Winona is the true queen and that The Morrigan is simply the sword. While she’s able to influence, and is dominant on the outside, the reality is that it’s Winona who must choose the path forward when it comes to dealing with Brigid. She must, as the title says, destroy.
For Brigid, she’s in a difficult enough position herself because those that serve her are struggling with what they’re being asked to do. After capturing the Fey and bringing in so many of the witches from there, they’re ready to just execute them in Brigid’s name and glory. But Brigid must give them the chance to convert and be magnanimous, which does not sit well with those that fought against the witches. There’s a lot of moments among her servants going on about this and it’s even worse when Brigid finally confronts what Winona has become. That it comes down to a challenge, one where Brigid agrees to free all of those captured, it sets the stage for the big one-on-one fight to come but at the cost of giving up what they’ve already won. The realization doesn’t sink in for most that it’s really The Morrigan that must be dealt with as the rest will all fall away once she’s defeated. But can she defeat that which she’s fought for so long?
In Summary:
While the flow of the book stumbles in a few places in really making it clear what’s going on or who we’re dealing with, the general concepts are pretty well-presented. This ages-old fight is getting closer to what could be a true finale and both of them have become more than what they were. Winona in particular has been adapted into what The Morrigan needs in order to protect their people and I really like the dynamic that we see between the two of them as it plays out in Winona’s mind. Kanga’s artwork continues to be a big draw as there’s a really neat sensibility about it with the designs and layouts and the minimalist approach to the landscape of the Fey. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what’s to come next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: August 28th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
