Her name is Soliana. She is a captive like the rest of them, but she isn’t like the rest of them. She is the daughter of a king. And since that king is a good she DOES have some kind of connection wit things that from the. Foundation of a certain confidence in the face of everything. Things are going to get complicated for her, though when her power shows-up, but she isn’t the one who is wielding it in The Sacrificers #12. Writer Rick Remender continues an intriguing fantasy adventure through some particularly brutal narrative terrain in another issue brought to page and panel by artist Max Fiumara and colorist Dave McCaig.

The foreman of the captives that Soliana is forced to travel with is going to betray her father. She doesn’t know what she’s going to be able to do about it. Nobody knows who she is and she doesn’t seem to have any way of probing her identity to anyone. As she considers this, she finds that the one responsible for stealing her flame is attacking. She’s woefully incapable of doing anything about it. The thief of her power wields it with brutal efficiency. All she can do is look on. 

Remender hits the page with one of the more brutal entries into the series thus far. it's been a hell of a journey so far. But this is one of the more intense experiences. The power between two opposing forces slams into the page with great force. And once again it is the case that the female lead in this series is more or less powerless. Presumably this is going to turn around at some point and it's going to be really satisfying. But for now it's just kind of upsetting. And this is exactly what the author seems to be going for. However, the brutality of the events that occur in this particular issue, lack of elegance author has managed with a series in the past.

Fumara and McCaig are able to render the force of the conflict with considerable might. However, the feeling of the magic of the gods doesn't quite hit the page of the way it should. It just doesn't have the overwhelming intensity that one would expect out of that sort of thing. That being said, a humanoid makes a crater in the ground very far from where he hit. There is death. There is incredible, dramatic and action based intensity. It just doesn't quite fit the level of intensity that the author had managed to with the series in the past. And so the intensity of the action doesn't quite get there in the visual.

Of course, this is all process of viewing something that is very, very much a work in progress. And there could be larger things on the horizon, which need to be kept in proportion to what's going on in the issue. It's one thing for mortals to wield the power of the gods. It would be that much more intense to see the actual god wheel the power. So there's probably some need to pull things back a bit just to make sure that it all feels right on a larger scale as the series continues. It's going to be interesting to see how issue 12 fits in with the rest of the series as things progress.

Grade: B