Zeb Larson reviews Burning Fields #4…
Dana and Aban chase down leads through a series of tunnels far from any military base, unaware that Decker and the PMCs are headed the same way, ready for a showdown. But the real threat is something far more sinister than any of them could have imagined.
It is starting to hit the fan in Burning Fields as our heroes literally delve deeper into the mystery behind Asag. Before, all we had were glimpses of Asag’s followers, and for all that they had been tortured and twisted, they were still human. Now however, Dana and Aban are getting close to something that is definitively not human. I will be discussing spoilers in this review, so read on only if you’ve already read the comic or don’t mind the events being revealed.
Dana, Aban and Ghada head to the junkyard in search of the killer. A small boy shows them to where he earlier heard screams. There, they discover a small shrine and a tunnel down below which leads into a much older cavern. The place has its own alien logic which transforms the tunnels into a kind of labyrinth, quite literally opening tunnels and closing them in front of the group. While down there, Ghada reveals exactly what Asag is to Dana: an evil demon that has lived there since time immemorial, being empowered by violence and human blood. The upsurge in violence has only made the creature more powerful. Unbeknownst to the group, Decker has followed them down with his team, only to lose all of them one by one to the shifting tunnels. Dana and her group escapes into a city in chaos while Decker is left behind to face Asag, or at least an avatar of Asag.
Up until now, we’ve only seen Asag’s human agents, who we can only assume are possessed by the demon. Now, however, we get to see what the creature looks like, and it’s appropriately horrifying to look at. There’s nothing remotely human about it, and the most appropriate descriptor would probably be “Lovecraftian,” though even that doesn’t account for the number of eyes. I’m still wondering how Asag takes possession of people, if only because we’ve never seen it and it’s hard to believe that anybody willingly worships something that horrifying. Perhaps it’s connected to violence. If that’s the case, things are about to get a lot worse for Decker, the man who has done a great many violent things.
So, what can the Order of Ninurta do to stop this creature? Dana correctly perceives that they don’t have any means to stop Asag, so what exactly will the plan be? I’m tempted to read into the Sumerian mythology around Asag, but I would hate to spoil what comes next. I’m more interested in how the three will move around the city now that everything around them has fallen into chaos: there’s not going to be anybody organized enough left to help them anyway. And now that Asag is here in physical form, how will he react to the city exploding in violence? Things are probably about to get a whole lot worse.
The next couple of issues will probably slow down a bit (paradoxically) as Dana and Aban are forced to come up with some kind of plan to deal with Asag, which will take some exposition. I’m ready for it, as both of them grapple with seeing something that should be impossible. Dana’s taken it in stride so far, but now it’s been really shoved into her face. And as for Decker? That can’t be good.
Zeb Larson
https://youtu.be/pnc360pUDRI?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published April 30, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
