“I’m not renowned for my good judgment.”
Creative Staff:
Story: G. Willow Wilson
Art: Christian Ward
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
What They Say:
After the Sundog’s capture and the discovery of a disabled Lux ship, a game of cat and mouse breaks out between the stalled security ship and the Riveter. Caught in the middle, Grix’s coded messages to the Lux crew could be her precious crew’s undoing . . . or their only chance of escape.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With not much of a breather after the opening arc that put the crew of the Sundog in a bad place, G. Willow Wilson is enjoying making sure that they have seemingly less and less choices in finding a way out of their situation. Which is fun until the depression starts to sink in with some of the characters in just how screwed they are. Thankfully, Christian Ward gets to delight us with some beautiful visuals throughout, some fun awkwardness with Vess, and a little silliness with Rath that goes a long way in easing that. Just some of the views of space that we get with the wonderful coloring work done makes it a joy to read and soak up.
With Turo holding sway over Grix and using her to get a line on this new ship, the tensions are really riding high. I do admire how well Grix handles it, even if she says she’s a terrible liar later, as she’s getting secret messages over to the other captain in order to try and find a way for all of them to survive and escape Turo’s clutches. Turo’s being keyed into something tricky happening but Grix is playing it so close to the vest to earn some basic trust in the moment that when nothing does happen, watching the tension wash away is almost amusing. Grix’s attempts at getting things moving in a better direction mean for the moment doing the opposite and falling in line. Which she manages to do after even joining the boarding party and attempting to get them to go along with things.
There’s a lot of little moments mixed into all of this as the group tries to figure out their own best path as Grix tries to get them to just stick to doing nothing. That lets him get close to this new Lux captain, but the reality is the Corporate has already warned a lot of people about the Sundog and her crew. It’s no surprise that things aren’t going to be as easy as Grix had hoped for but they’re really piling on here and this new captain is making it clear that she underestimated what reality is. Still, they’re all working together because of their mode immediate issue and it plays out well for the reader in that it just gets worse and worse for Grix and her crew, forcing her to really realize that they’re truly on their own and trust is no longer something they can get from anyone else.
In Summary:
I continue to enjoy Invisible Kingdom a lot but I’m also hopeful it gets back to a bit more of what the first few issues were like. The series has scaled up nicely since then but we really need some time with this crew forging their own path and feeling like they’re in a least a little bit of control but that rug is stolen out from under them again. Christian Ward’s artwork contnues to be fantastic both with how it works in space with the boarding and standoff as well as elsewhere with the small character moments. I love the variety and creativity of the designs and hope that we get more of it soon.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics / Berger Books
Release Date: December 18th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
