She’s never felt anything like this before. She’s never been prepared for this. She’s a princess. The daughter of the Sun and Moon is hungry. And it’s starting to snow. Things are going to get a bit worse for her before they can get better in The Sacrificers #10. Writer Rick Remender continues an engrossing fantasy story with artist André Lima Araújo and colorist  Dave McCaig. The story may concern itself with much that has been echoing through contemporary fantasy in recent decades, but Remender manages a fresh approach to it with relatable characters in a suitably tense. Character-based story. 

She’s starving, but no one seems to want to help her. The produce vendor sees her coming and puts-up the “closed” sign. The man who runs the bakery pushes her out of his establishment with a broom. She’s weak from starvation. Scarcely able to defend herself. He tells her that if she’s begging, she should do so at the church. It’s a strange idea for her, but that doesn’t mean that she’s not going to do it. She goes to the church of the flame-headed god Rokos for help. Her odds of aid aren’t good, but this IS the church of her father. How much worse could her luck be?

The tenth issue of Sacrificers might be one of the single best things Remender has written in the past few years. It’s simple, deeply allegorical and profoundly horrifying on a number of different levels. The daughter of the gods seeks aid. No one recognizes her in her time of need. Things get ugly. There have been echoes of this kind of story that go back to the dawn of storytelling, but Remender manages to deliver it in a way that feels both new and timeless at the same time. 

Remender gives Araújo a great deal of room in which to move around. Remender clearly has tremendous respect for the artist. It’s respect that is in no way misplaced. SO much is said in panels without any dialogue or narration. The mood, tone and pacing of the issue is brilliantly executed by Araújo in drama, action and beautifully-rendered architectural work in the backgrounds. McCaig’s colors deliver a range of different affects from the cold chill of a snowy afternoon to the frigidness of the night to the bloody, acrid warmth of the following morning.  It’s all committed to the page with such grace and depth.

There are aspects of the basic premise of The Sacrificers that DO approach a fantasy story with thoughtful originality, but the basics narrative structure of the whole series has been built around a time-honored foundation that feels comforting enough to be reassuring, even in light of the grizzly nature of what’s taken place in the course of the issue. It’s rare that a series manages to hit the ground running with the kind of flair that The Sacrificers has managed. The series hits a particularly high point with its tenth issue.

Grade: A+