Further down into the sun…
Creative Staff:
Story: Mike Carey
Art: Kenan Yarar
Colors: Mohan
Letterer: Crank!
What They Say:
Barbarella is missing, presumed dead: fallen into Firu Fenzu’s sun, from which there’s no coming back. But the core of this star is a brave new world, where Barbarella will learn how badly she has been betrayed – and where she just might find the allies she needs for an epic comeback.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this arc was intriguing with how it brought Barbarella into a storyline with Quire calling for her assistance to save a species from a sickness. I liked Quire from the opening storyline and getting a bit more time with her in a professional environment and mission was going to be a lot of fun. Mike Carey likes subverting things as we’ve seen so there’s no surprise that nothing is what it seems here as we get further into the story. One that plays with some really fun visuals as Kenan Yarar gets to focus on creatures that live within the sun. Having read a lot of science fiction of the “hard” type that speculates on what could exist there, it’s definitely fun to get something that’s a bit looser and freeform in a way, going more for the strange and unusual.
In orbit, we see Quire and Vix realizing that Captain Uhan was not forthright with them on what was going on and that Barbarella’s connection with the Rua ship wasn’t an accident in the slightest. She’s simply not the civilian that they thought she was and was able to break free before they could get out of her what was embedded in her. This side of the story lets the fun with Vix continue as it’s very useful here and pairs well with Quire since she’s proven to be a reliable ally overall – though Barbarella may be a little less trustworthy for a bit considering events here. Uhal gets some decent time as well as I really like what we see out of him in trying to set things on the right path again with the Rua, which are just intriguing in their visual design, again making me want to explore it more.
Barbarella’s time within the sun makes up most of the book, however, as she deals with the Esserverine that she’s there to try and help with the vaccine she has. These creatures are pretty large and care for even larger creatures that stride across the layered surface of the star here and I love the look of them all as it does fit into classic Barbarella styling of the original period when you get down to it. The story works some good attempts at communication and understanding through telepathy with very different creatures, particularly since Barbarella is so small and so very cold compared to what they prefer. It’s not exactly full of exposition but it does have an exasperated Barbarella trying to get through to them with the urgency of not just the situation but her own particulars here since the suit is going to last for only so long – and deeper into the star she still must go.
In Summary:
I’m digging this arc a lot just for the concepts of it all (and really recommend Stephen Baxter’s book Flux if you’re looking for a more hard science look at existence within a star). Mike Cary works a solid story here with the situation and how everyone is reacting and I’m excited to see what the bigger play really is here and just how badly it’s all going to fall out by the end. Quire and Vix steal the show for me but at the same time I really love seeing what Kenan Yarar is doing in bringing a story to life within the star itself. There’s a lot of room for interpretation and “fantastic” science of the far future in the Barbarella universe and I’m loving what he’s doing here – even if I still hope he decides to get even crazier and weirder as time goes on. And as Barbarella goes deeper still!
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: October 3rd, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
