A fresh start only goes so far.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Ariela Kristantina
Colors: Jessica Kholinne
Letters: A Larger World
What They Say:
In this new story-arc, the lovers have barely survived their battle with the Hag, and must now flee to Paris to heal, recover, and restore their love. But beneath the City of Light is a world of darkness, a world pulsing with witchcraft, seduction, and utter, obscene monstrosity…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening arc of Insexts across the seven issues we had previously certainly worked well overall, though I could quibble about some detours and distractions along the way. Some of it felt like it was a figured out along the way where the story was intended to go and that kind of approach worked well as the reader couldn’t be sure what to expect. With a new arc here now, Bennett and Kristantina are back for more and the pair certainly feel like they have the wind at their backs as they move into the storyline. There’s an ease and beauty about it that’s really intoxicating in some ways, particularly with the lush artwork that Kholinne really brings to life in an utterly fantastic way. The blending of these talens really makes this a book to soak up and enjoy with several readings.
While the opening couple of pages gives hint as to what’s to come, the bulk of the focus is on where our leads are at this time. After the events in England that they went through they’ve now relocated to Paris where Mariah is caring for Will and the cocooned Lady Bertram. It’s great to give Mariah more time in the forefront here as her role felt a bit reduced as the previous arc went on at times. Here, we see how well she cares for young Will and how the two of them anxiously await for Lady to come back into their lives again. There’s a really strong sense of love between them all and Will feels like he’s more fully realized here because of Mariah’s interactions with him. When Lady Bertram does come back into the picture he’s not around so we don’t get to see that but I’ll take that tradeoff with what we get between the two women here as it’s wonderfully sensual as these new creatures engage in a way that normal human senses likely can’t.
This issue also introduces a new character to the mix with a governess that Mariah is procuring for Will, since she and Lady will often be busy. Phoebe’s an interesting character right out of the gate as we get touches of her past but it’s also the way she so readily embraces the conditions and strangeness of what Mariah presents. Naturally, there’s far more to Phoebe than meets the eye as there are some men that are after her because of her supposed skills and through this we see she has some quite surprising combat skills as well as something ritualistic. I love that Mariah gets surprised by this as she’s often not easily thrown off and it’s something that Kristantina captures well. I’m definitely curious to see more about her and how she fits into the household as you get the sense that there could be some complicated layers within her, if she is who she says she is.
In Summary:
Though we only had one skip month it’s felt like we’ve been away longer than that, so a return to the world of Insexts is welcome. With all that Marguerite Bennett is involved with I always fear for some of the things she’s working on falling away and Insexts along with Bombshells are two that I hope don’t end anytime soon. She and Kristantina bring us up to speed easily enough here with where our leading ladies are while not spending any real time on recap or exposition to connect new readers, which is a dicey thing to do but something that I think works well enough with a book like this. The change in locale is a big plus and I’m quite interested in what Phoebe will bring to the series as well as the other mysteries that are just starting to claw around the edges. Here’s to a new arc!
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: AfterShock Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 5th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
