“Down the Rabbit Hole”
Creative Staff:
Story: Sarah Hoyt
Art: Ricardo Bogani
Colors: Werner Sanchez
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
What They Say:
BARBARELLA SETS OUT ON A DESPERATE MISSION TO STOP INTERGALACTIC WAR BETWEEN GODLIKE BEINGS!
Beyond the edge of known space lies…the Unnamable. Myth? Gods? Malevolent force? No one knows. No one but the one force in the universe that can stand against the Unnameable: the Architects, hidden guides of our galaxy for untold eons.
Enter Barbarella, on a desperate quest to find and convince the Architects that a war with the Unnameable will spell the death of Every. Living. Thing.
Get ready for tension, excitement, espionage, and the secret of how to defeat an empire. Fun, romance, and cosmic adventure beyond the furthest reaches of the galaxy!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a really strong ten-issue run out previously, this new series had me excited because I wanted more, particularly from this writer. Sarah Hoyt turned in a very strong, engaging, and enjoyable read in that ten-issue series that I really dreaded the thought of losing them as the writer behind it, especially with such a great art team bringing it about visually. This series did a great job of connecting with past works while still feeling connected to the film in its own way so I’m beyond glad that they’re back for more. This time around, Ricardo Bogani is on board for the artwork and they’re bringing their own look and style to the series, especially with Werner Sanchez coming on for the color design. It’s not a carbon copy of what we had before and I’m excited to see more of their style with this run as it goes on and they get even more comfortable and experimental with it.
With what was learned in the previous series, this one gives us a sliver of the basics at the start but it’s largely throwing us into things. Barbarella, Taln, and Vix are en route to Vix’s homeworld to meet with the Architects to try and shift the nature of their war against the Unnameable that has been going on for millennia. Vix isn’t enjoying this trip, however, as his people are throwing a lot of things at them and being more adversarial than usual. And even upon landing, Vix is scurried off while Barbarella has her weapons removed and is put into quarantine. They’re incredibly wary of her and the way she, through her personality and the innate part of her, can essentially bring peace to individuals and cause a wave of it. She’s not exactly pleased by all of this either, especially since Taln was basically deconstituted once they got too close to the planet and he’s out of the picture, leaving her even more defenseless.
The sense of something wrong is what’s at play here and it’s fun to see Vix among her people and really concerned while trying to make sure she doesn’t get into trouble, which only goes so far. Most of the focus is on Barbarella as she manages to figure a way out of her cell, helped by there being other species working for the Architects she can manipulate, but it thrusts her into the hands of Jack Wylder, a humanoid rabbit type who takes her to his American suburban home which is a spaceship that brings him, his two wives, and two children along with Barbarella to a planet where the real truths of what the Architects are up to will be revealed. It’s thin on revealing anything about what’s going on but it’s fun to get a Bond-like Wylder here and to see Barbarella essentially going with the flow, albeit wary, and trying to figure out what’s happening. She’s intent on peace as is her mandate and view, but she’s also starting to see there’s a lot more going on than the battle between the Unnameable and the Architects.
In Summary:
Barbarella has been an influential property since my childhood thanks to the film and I am absolutely loving the current modern stories being told through Dynamite and particularly with Sarah Hoyt. I love how well the scripts work in capturing that kind of space opera feel without getting bogged down in the “how would it really work” stuff that makes other things problematic. Here, the focus is on the story and characters and everything is in service to that and it simply delights. Bogani’s artwork isn’t a huge shift from the previous series and artist as they bring their own style to it and it fits in wonderfully. I’m excited to see where it goes and grows from here from all involved.
Grade: B+
Series Grade: A
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: March 1st, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
