Rodney Barnes, writer
Jason Shawn Alexander, art
Luis NCT, colors
Marshall Dillon, Letters
Recap
In this issue, Sangster Jr. has to explain to his father why he woke him up from the dead, Abigail and co-conspirator Brittany strategize on ways to defeat the human race, and we learn the interesting backstory of Jupiter – Abigail’s slave. Along the way, we learn about Thomas Jefferson’s connection to slavery, Jupiter’s real name, and Abigail’s true intentions: to make slaves of all.
This story moves cleanly from sequence to sequence building on the character development that occurred in previous issues. The vampire attack continues, only with a more strategic approach. The Heroes are backed into a corner, overmatched, and searching for answers. Within this context, interesting personal moments occur like Sangster Jr. and Sr. working together as police officers. By doing so, they experience something in Sr. ‘s afterlife that they never truly experienced while he was still alive: seeing the fruits of a father’s hard labor.
Meanwhile, evil continues to grow, and the connections to this country’s treacherous past continue to reveal itself in the form of vampires who seek to subdue all of humanity. But to what end? They have to be careful as destroying humanity means destroying their food source. They settle on disrupting the messengers, first, by killing a popular rap artist. Second, the move to control humanity by attacking Philadelphia’s communications network. The story twist is very appropriate. We have all seen the impact of governmental leaders whose misuse of communication and social media have had a devastating impact on the spread of false information and building on fear-based thinking.
Finally, by revisiting Jupiter’s early childhood friendship with Thomas Jefferson and eventual slave to Abigail we are reminded of the cost this country has endured due to the evil institution of slavery and patriarchal leadership. I can say that the story takes you on the walk and unless you close your eyes you can’t help but feel the pain caused by such diabolical systems. It does this in a show not tell fashion that increases the emotional weight by providing a clearly seen and felt lesson for us to take to heart. I highly recommend this book. Overall 9.5/10
