Napalm Lullaby #6 // Review
She wanted to kill her father. Now she has to keep him alive. Her mother tells her that he isn’t a bad man. He’s just been brainwashed. Aggressively brainwashed. He’s encased in a tube of fluid with a massive helmet over he’s head. That could be for his safety. That could be for everyone else’s safety. Matters of safety and security get very, very complicated in Napalm Lullaby #6. Writer Rick Remender and artist Bengal continue to weave a very dense stoty, which reaches its sixth chapter in ever-increasing complexity. Remender is gradually constructing a dangerous place of great intensity.
They’re rushing the head of the cult off to be deprogrammed when Liliana descends from heaven. (Well...the ceiling, actually, bt she might as well be descending from heaven given the amount of power she has.) She can’t allow them to take the head of the cult off to be deprogrammed. She will stop at nothing to keep them from leaving with him. That might have to mean taking a few lives in the process. Liliana isn’t going to have an easy time of it. Half her face is going to get charred in the conflict. That’s going to make her pretty mad...
Remender keeps the action rolling while delivering a bit more drama in a way that feels brisk and intense without slowing-down the overall pacing of a story that seems to have found a solid momentum coming out of the first five issues of the series. The dystopian super-powered family drama strikes the page in a way that echoes aspects of various pantheons of antiquity while moving into distinctly new territories. There’s a steady rhythm to the action that keeps everything moving without compromising the heart of the conflict which rests in an appealingly heavy family drama.
Bengal shoots the action across the page with grace in a fully-rendered environment that occasionally features some beautiful, futurist architectural rendering in the background. It all feels so very, very immersive on so many levels. There’s a nice balance to the art. Bengal’s style allows for plenty of open space to contrast against bits of detail as the action flows. Som of the color effects that Bengal has managed look positively gorgeous. The light from energy attacks feels almost wincingly powerful. The diffusion of light into the tube bearing the head of the cult is a nice, subtle touch for the color as well.
The various elements being brought into the story feel like they’re all working quite well together, but the narrative IS reaching a crucial point at which things could derail in one direction or another pretty quickly. Time will tell how it all plays-out, but there is a strong sense that the overall integrity of a deeply engaging series seems to be in good hands. The fate of the world is once again in question. It really feels like Remender and Bengal are taking this threat quite seriously and bringing its story to the reader with grace and poise.
