“I’m a rotten enemy, as you know. But I’m a much better friend.”
Creative Staff:
Story: G. Willow Wilson
Art: Christian Ward
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
What They Say:
The Sundog has been captured by pirates, with Grix and the crew at the mercy of its black-hearted captain Turo. When a disabled Lux ship is found stranded in the junk rings, it becomes the Riveters’ next target . . . and the Sundog is dragged along for the increasingly treacherous ride.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the world opened up to us after the initial events of Invisible Kingdom, it was amusing to see where G. Willow Wilson went with it. Having the Sundog and its crew captured by pirates basically puts them back in captivity, but they’re luckier than most when you get down to it. Christian Ward continues to make this a delightful book to watch unfold beyond the story itself as I absolutely love the color design of it as well as the science fiction elements like ships. Though there are conventional aspects to it we also get a lot that just lets their imagination run wild with it and get creative. The same can be said about the aliens themselves, though I’d like to have just a bit more brought into play so we see everyone for who they are.
Captain Turo is pretty much the best that they could have hoped for as it’s fairly considerate and actually is looking out for them. He’s having fun toying with Grix a bit when you get down to it but it’s all so he can try to understand Grix more. There’s also the reality that Turo can’t understand why Grix would align with Lux when there’s a better life out there in the stars are a privateer, but Grix can’t get past the whole pirates and thieves angle. I like the back and forth we get between the two of them as it says a lot about Turo and fills in a little more on Grix and just how close to the chest they play it. The main area that seems to unsettle are the moments about the Roolians, and largely because Vess is on the ship itself.
We do get a little time with Vess as we see her pushing back against all of this since it reminds her of the oppression that she and her people face. Of course, Turo has words about that from a worldly point of view to try and ease Grix’s own concerns. But all of this is just to be dealt with later as Turo’s crew has now come across a ship that should in no way be in the condition that it’s in while its crew tries to repair it. It’s a huge boon if they can get it because of what it represents on the marketplace and Turo even offers up Grix a chance to buy her ship and refit it some with the funds. But it requires her to make the full first step toward real piracy with some subterfuge that will cause Grix problems later to be sure.
In Summary:
Invisible Kingdom continues to be a real treat to read. I love the cast and the style of the whole science fiction concept and hope that we’ll get into some real exploratory stuff at some point just to let all the imaginative stuff run wild. Grix is now facing some real choices that they’re going to have to work through with the crew and hopefully that’ll flesh them out a bit more as it felt like a more streamlined version of the crew with th
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics / Berger Books
Release Date: November 27th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99