Creative Staff:
Story: George Mann
Art: Joe Eisma
Colors: Michael Garland
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
Conspiracy! Blackmail! Murder! As the Celestial infighting continues, Joss and the others traverse an increasingly dangerous landscape in search of the Terran Seed, only to encounter a dark truth at the heart of an ancient Shade city. Meanwhile, Nypan and Marl plot rebellion…if they can survive the fallout of the Celestial’s machinations.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It looks like I missed the previous issue, which with a series like this can be problematic, but Engineward is the type of title that I’ll push through to figure out and catch up on. George Mann has been doing some really fun stuff with this series and I like the strange aspects of it, the far-science elements, and just the plain weirdness at times as well. Joe Eisma helps to bring that all together in an interesting way so that it feels like it’s cohesive and all functions together while also having these really cool and stylish areas that just stand out nicely. It’s a good combination, accented with Michael Garland’s color design, that helps to make this a distinctive book that tickles a kind of 80s indie comic feeling that I really like.
This installment is a bit of a transitional one but it’s certainly interesting and has a big hook at the end that makes it easy to come back for more. We see mostly what’s going on with the Celestials first as Virgo is working her plan with Sagittarius while she has Gemini off on the ground doing the actual deeds. She’s making progress and pleased but she also finds herself in Capricorn’s site as he comes accosting her in the hallway. He’s got no leverage, though he thinks he does, and it’s amusing to watch as he wants in on the coup to change the balance of power as long as he gets a share. I do like her retort over it, mostly in that asking for a share of power doesn’t truly give you power, but it’s an interesting series of events to have happen when the book ends with him seemingly dead in the human city where all of these adventures started.
With the main group that we’ve been following, they make up the bulk of the book but it’s actually more of a travelogue. There are some great two page spreads of the landscape with a line showing their progress across it with bubbles highlighting smaller events along the way. There isn’t a lot of detail to them but it helps to move them forward over a lot of territory in a visible way. We do get them making a pass through an older city that’s in great shape even if it died a long time ago in regards to its population. But they see things there and it’s a nice haunting bit highlighting a very different world history than what they knew. All of it serves to bring them closer to where they need to be to acquiring the Terran Seed with just a bit more distance but they’re still being followed, which makes them wary. I like the group dynamic as it plays out throughout this as it’s basically a solid montage sequence that lands in some good dialogue at the end and some great visuals before that.
In Summary:
Enginward has a solid installment here and I think that I managed to navigate it well enough considering I missed the previous issue where they found the arcship and made some discoveries, going by the solicitation for it. There’s not much time with the Celestials here but key things are happening in that regard and a real change come the end of this issue. At the same time, the book feels like a montage sequence for the rest of the cast as they travel toward the Terran Seeed and while it may not be heavy on story it provides for some great moments of wonder and imagination with what came before and what a different world this once was.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Vault Comics | Amazon | ComiXology
Release Date: February 3rd, 2021
MSRP: $3.99