“Returns”
Creative Staff:
Story: Olivia Cuartero-Briggs
Art: Luca Merli
Colors: Luca Merli
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
Ru reunites with Sticks and, in spite of Mick’s suspicions, enlists his help in thwarting the University’s guards to get Junie to the Returns Portal – the gateway back to her living body. When they arrive, however, they realize they’ve been lured into a trap not all will manage to escape.
Welcome to Silver City, where the sun never rises and nothing ever changes…until now.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The early issues of this series definitely caught my attention with both the story and the visuals, even as it forces me to think of mortality, which is not one of my favorite subjects as I get older. Olivia Cuartero-Briggs put together an interesting start that brought us to the Silver City and introduced us to Ru as our eyes and ears for this journey. Paired with Luca Merli, the visual design was really interesting for the main city but also for other areas that we get glimpses of, which is included in this issue once again. It’s the character designs that really drew me in. There’s something about them that just clicks for me and helps to make it really distinctive in a very positive way.
That said, the first half of this issue is a bit of a struggle as it moves back and forth to some various points in life and death and how things went down. The whole thing with the band in 1992 just didn’t do anything for me as I really didn’t need much in the way of background for these characters. There are interesting moments but the book felt more cohesive once it shifted to Mick and Ru running off to avoid getting picked up by security, especially once Mick makes it clear that prison in this place is not the kind of thing you want to see. The Silver City continues to be an interesting place overall and the mythology around it is very tantalizing in how its residents describe so much of it and just try to navigate their time through it.
With Mick and Ru keeping out of the way, they focus on trying to find the return chamber place so they can figure out how to get Junie back. Mick’s in on it since he’s interested in Ru and she’s very focused on doing right for the little girl that’s still alive. What shakes things up is when her friend Sticks reconnects with her and we suddenly get Jealous Mick in the pictures. Stick is worth being wary of since he knows where this chamber is and managed to find her out of the blue even without a code to be found by. It does shift gears by the end with the group coming together to try and get Junie through, with an amusing distraction to throw off the knights, but it feels like it’s operating a bit too loosely and without enough being thought out to pull it off. Research!
In Summary:
Silver City has some good stuff going on here but something about a good chunk of it just didn’t click well for me in the end. I continue to like the concept and the main characters we’re dealing with but the story felt like it was more reactive in the back half without thinking through what they needed to do, especially since this really is all so new to Ru. The first half left me confused at times as to what was when and who was who but it has its moments of worth as well and may read better when read in full.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: July 21st, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
