Calum Petrie reviews The Red Mother #12…
As we enter the final stage of the story for The Red Mother, we follow Daisy through the door and onto the other side. When passing through, we are brought into the final pages of a story that started 11 issues ago with a bizarre concept and broken victim. The road through Daisy’s story has been lined with deceit, heartbreak, manipulation, lies and half truths.
The character has experienced more in 12 issues than most people went through in all of 2020. Though not all the issues were winners, the story quality did suffer in the middle with less exciting plot development, yet overall it has never made me lose interest in Daisy and the mystery that was unfolding.
When we left off the door was open, the players took their places and finally pulled the metaphorical blindfold off of Daisy’s head to show her the grand scheme she was involved in. The way in which all the pieces fell into place made for one of the more impressive points in the series’ over-arching story, while making me instantly interested to finally see our large reveal.
Now we lay our eyes on the nearly fully reconstructed Red Mother and her Herald. The issue throws some very large and bizarre concepts to the reader, and more story being delivered within the twilight pages was a strange move. Though it does put the reader in Daisy’s shoes, where talk of beings that have been lost for millennia finally returning, I felt somewhat out of my depth and wondering what was going on. Very much how I imagine our protagonist to be feeling.
The colours used in this final issue really convey the foreboding sensation delivered, the oppressive feeling that comes with the oversaturated red colour pallet. We gain a lot more insight that we are not in Kansas anymore, or well London I suppose. The artwork definitely backs up and creates new levels for the story to be delivered upon. The cover art for this issue alone might just be my favourite, where the horrific image hammers home the sense of horror and shock that I feel the series has been delivering all along.
The story rounds itself off in a bittersweet tone, one where we never know if there is going to be more down the line for Daisy or if this is the definitive end to her tale. I am torn in-between wanting and not wanting to know. Can the reader be sure that this is where the story ends or will information delivered during the last issue lead us down a different avenue within the same universe but with new characters?
This is a strange situation indeed, I feel like I enjoyed yet didn’t love the ending to this tale, and that more story was given to us, just to be cast into the wind before we fully comprehend the larger meaning and ramifications of what was going to happen.
Rating – 8/10
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