The Sacrificers #11 // Review
The god of the sun requests another round of sacrifices. This time he wants one from every family. The sacrifices will continue until someone confesses that they know where his daughter is. The one in charge of the sacrifices doesn’t want to do what he has to do. He knows that they will revolt. The king’s daughter must be found so that he can kill her. Things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better in The Sacrificers #11. Writer Rick Remender continues a thoroughly engrossing fantasy drama with artist André Lima Araújo and colorist Dave McCaig.
Of course, the god of the sun’s daughter is perfectly fine. She would LIKE to be fond, but alas--she’s completely unrecognizable in some other body. She’s a refugee like so many of the rest of them that are now being persecuted by those looking to sacrifice one more from each family. For some...their children are all they have left. For so many of them, they only have one more child. They are told that one among them would know the whereabouts of the sun god’s daughter. They don’t know that they’re taking his daughter as a potential sacrifice.
Remender is doing some remarkable things with the deeper allegorical aspects of the story Remender could easily take the story out of its fantasy setting and place it at a specific point in recognizable history, but the deeper meaning behind what he’s exploring in the plot would get lost to the mechanics of history with various nations and religions and things getting in the way of the deeper emotional resonance of what it is that he’s developing. It’s remarkably bleak stuff, but Remender is sharp to add a few moments of truly endearing emotional warmth to the narrative. It’s not much, but it’s just enough to keep it from being an overwhelmingly sad chapter in the series.
Araújo and McCaig are given a great deal of room with which to deliver the emotional intensity of the story. The oppressed are anthropomorphized bluebirds who seem breathtakingly meek. One might expect that the beaky, little face of a bluebird might lack some sense of humanity, but Araújo makes the faces expressive enough to deliver the weight of the drama. The art team also does a brilliant job of rendering the landscapers and architecture in the background of the action. The world of The Sacrificers is SO immersive in so many ways. McCaig’s colors are as impressive in light as they are in shadow. It’s a very vivid image of fantasy that’s being brought tho page.
The darkness is encroaching from every side of every panel but Remender and company are doing an admirable job of keeping it from being totally bleak. This is really important as the heroism of the central cast is the one, little gleaming ember of hope in the darkness that keeps it all moving and grabs hold of the reader. Without that little glimmer of hope, it would all be a bit too intense to keep the reader drawn to what is a truly captivating story.
Grade: A
