The end of the beginning.
Creative Staff:
Story: G. Willow Wilson
Art: Christian Ward
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
What They Say:
In a desperate bid to repair their ship and outrun the Riveteers, the crew of the Sundog discover unexpected allies—and realize their sacrifices may not have been in vain after all.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The tenth issue of Invisible Kingdom brings us to two main places that I’ve been waiting for and ends in a way that has me willing to come back in June when it picks up again with its next part. G. Willow Wilson has a number of good ideas floating about this series but some of its execution has left me a little less interested in it than I might be otherwise. What’s helped keep me around during what is essentially the prologue of the series is Christian Ward’s artwork. It continues to be some really strong work with the beautiful color design that has me wanting to get lost in the star-filled backgrounds that we get from it. Combine that with great character designs and it’s very easy to enjoy on that level.
With Grix having taken the leap across space and ended up practically dead for it – her heart stopped, after all – it was Vess who kept her just alive enough to bring her back once on the inside. This helps as she recovers to finally push the two of them toward what’s been going on for a while now. Vess has really given a lot of herself for Grix in this instance and Grix can’t just let that slide, making it clear how she really feels about Vess and giving her a choice on it that she wants made in the here and now. But that choice comes with experiencing a kiss first and it’s presented in such a mindblowing and beautiful way that it makes a big impact on both of them. Of course, that can’t be taken further – which it feels like it would have – because events elsewhere are calling for Grix. It’s a really well-done sequence overall that helps to put these two on a better and clearer path for both of them.
That other event is dealing with Turo now that he’s up and coming to some negotiation in how to deal with him and his crew. Grix does at least have the right idea in that all she wants to do is send him back, have them turn a blind eye to them, and get the hell out of there. She’s still struggling with how their attempt at changing things went south so badly and then worse once coming across Turo that some downtime is all that they really need. Of course, this is when the lager Lux force shows up looking to dominate the conversation and we see Grix finally taking a real and true risk in the biggest of ways. Setting course to outside of known space for the system in most people’s eyes is just death because there’s no refueling or anything else, so they’re largely forgotten very quickly. But, as we see, there’s far more going on out here and that’s what will draw me back in.
In Summary:
Invisible Kingdom brings its opening storyline to a close and teases what’s next, which I really hope it can capitalize on. There are a lot of good things about the series conceptually that it hasn’t been able to fully realize yet so it’s close but not quite there. It excels in the art and provides the right hooks in the story to draw in people so it knows it’s got all the right elements. This one does seem to bring to a close, for now, a couple of problematic areas that I hope aren’t going to be repeated in the next once since repetition was already feeling like too much of a theme in these ten issues. I’m cautiously optimistic about how the book will play out when it returns but I’ll definitely be there.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics / Berger Books
Release Date: February 26th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
