Jessie Robertson reviews Angelic #1…
Humanity’s long gone. Its memory lingers only as misunderstood rituals among mankind’s leftovers: the genetically modified animals they used and abused for eons. But for one young flying monkey, QORA, the routines are unbearable. All she wants is to explore. Instead she’s expected to settle down, to become a mother…to lose her wings.
Love her or hate her, in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s political defeat this year, the power of the woman feels more present and gathering more momentum as the year goes by. One only need to turn to Wonder Woman, or more precisely, her blockbuster movie this year, to see and feel and be tangible in your face that women rule this world and that is not changing anytime soon. But, it’s not easy for women (understatement of everything ever said, EVER!). Raising two daughters I see it every day, which isn’t the same as living the experience.
In Angelic, a world devised of monkeys and flying dolphins, in a possible post-apocalyptic world that looks built from metal erector set KNEX, these issues still prevail. A young female, coming of age, questions the system of their world. All the males, including her mate, punish her for it and wonder why she questions the system that is set in place. The one question she can’t let leave her mind is “why?” and she is punished again for saying it too many times. This is a tale that looks at gender roles in the most peculiar of societies with its own language, its own religious ceremonies (using strange lights left laying around from the biggest glow stick party in history) and its own customs, but it mirrors so many societies past and present.
This story by Simon Spurrier feels like Saga mixed with Watership Down and a bit of We3 mixed in with its abundant host of animal-like creatures, and it’s more than enough to pull someone back in for a second issue, and more than likely a third. What is this world and how did it come to be? These are the questions (as well as dynamic characters) that drew people into Saga in the first place. The art by Caspar Wijngaard feels cartoonish yet very much Image in the best way possible. I think the best thing going for this book is it opens readers to a different world – it’s the best example of a comic book that equates to art within its medium. There is still action, and conflict, and beautiful panels, but it does it in its own way. What will female readers find when they read this book? Something relatable I think, and in this year of the woman, bring it on and give me two helpings.
Rating: 8.5
Jessie Robertson