Kaya #23 // Review
In the future, she will only be able to speak backwards. Or maybe she will only be able to speak backwards when visiting the past. Or maybe she's only able to speak backwards when speaking to herself in the past. Time travel tends to be kind of complicated. And it's going to get even more complicated in Kaya #23. Writer/artist Wes Craig continues a fun and sweeping sci-fi action fantasy with colorist Jason Wordie. A complexity of drama continues as the action rules across the page with powerful dramatic form. The distinct style that Craig is bringing to the page feels unique, both in visuals and in script. Somehow, however, it still manages to feel delightfully familiar.
Kaya is kind of in a compromised state when she runs into herself from the future. She's already run into what appeared to be phantoms from the past. And there's a great deal of danger that seems to be constantly chasing her around. It's only going to get more complicated. It's only going to get more dangerous. And she's going to be in a great deal of haste in order to save herself. invariably something is going to get lost in the process. And invariably she's going to miss something very important. With any luck she will survive it all.
It's not easy to have a character run into a future version of themselves. It’s all quite maddening trying to maintain the momentum of the story while revealing something important about the future. Like the fact that it's even going to happen. Particularly in a series like this. It's kind of a strange sort of a prospect to try to bring in concepts of things that haven't happened yet. Craig keeps it interesting en, the speed with which everything is going on. the fact that the title character is running into herself while running away from so much else aids in the crazy, delightfully chaotic energy of it all.
Visuals continue to be really appealing. Lots of weird fantasy elements are fused traditional adventure with something that looks may be vaguely inspired by sword and sorcery fantasy and Science Fiction action adventure at the same time. beyond the basic design elements of the series, Craig is doing a masterful job of bringing the actual action to the page. Big splashy panels explode off the page. When the script calls for it. And then there's a hell of a lot of forward momentum as things continue to rush forward. It's kind of weird that the constant forward momentum of the Chase in this series never manages to get old or awkward. So much running away from things. So much running two things. And yet Craig is able to keep it fresh and interesting throughout.
By opening up this latest mystery about Kaya’s future Craig is adding quite a bit of narrative momentum to a series that really didn’t need all that much more to begin with. Craig's tale is nothing if not a constant movement forward. So it's interesting to see what he's doing with. Respect to adding further layers of mystery beyond the edges of everything. It's actually very impressive. However, there needs to be enough resolution to various elements of mystery in order for the constant movement forward to maintain itself. For the time being Craig is doing a good job of revealing just enough answers to questions to keep it moving. At least for now.
