Panya: The Mummy’s Curse #2 // Review

There is a girl in ancient Egypt who is plagued by visions. She sweeps up around a temple. It’s such a strange time in Egypt’s history. The girl had grown up knowing only one god under the rule of the pharaoh Akhenaten. Now, the world is filled with so many gods that it’s difficult to keep them all straight. The mystery of her visions continues in Panya: The Mummy’s Curse #2. Writer Chris Roberson continues a mystical tale from a crucial point in Egyptian history with artist Christopher Mitten and colorist Michelle Madsen. The dreamlike radiance of the story continues to shine in its second issue.

Panya finds it easier to talk to the cats than it is to talk to other people. Her life seems pretty solitary. There is prayer. There is the temple. There is the broom. And there are the cats. However...there are dreams that might be nightmares that seem to be rolling through her mind. They may have some sort of divine source, but they could also be simple excursions into dream. Panya dreams at night, but she also dreams something else while awake with the broom and the cats. A stronger vision is coming, though. It’s one that she will find very difficult to ignore.

Roberson delicately allows the story of one girl’s life to play across the page with clever execution. There’s a strong sense of stillness and sameness from one scene to the next--one day to the next. There’s a strong pull to the fantastic and the stories from places beyond the immediate, which assert themselves beyond Panya, her cats, and her broom. Roberson is clever to give Panya her space as well. There are things she tells the cats that the reader isn’t privy to. The more casual, surface-level mystery of Panya is maintained amidst deeper, more mystical mysteries. 

Mitten caresses the page with Panya’s presence. She’s there in the middle of the panel for most of the issue, but she’s acting as an observer throughout the story. The presence of the cats in the periphery lends a powerful sense of the casually otherworldly in and around the edges of the central story. It also lends a cuteness to the page that makes the Panya’s world that much more inviting. Mitten follows Roberson’s lead in slowly pacing the story with many still moments, which gradually open up by issues end into something fantastic, which foreshadows greater mysteries. next issue.

The first couple of issues of the series could be criticized for lacking a strong central direction. That’s actually a good portion of the point of the series, though. A big part of the central conflict IS Panya’s overall lack of direction. She’s looking for deeper meaning in and around the edges of a very simple life. When the fantastic finally DOES strike, it does so in impressive fashion when contrasted against Panya’s daily life. It’s a nice little world that Roberson and Mitten have begun to explore.

Grade: A