[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Nalo Hopkinson and Dan Watters
Artist: Dominike “DOMO” Stanton
Colors: John Ravuch
Letters: Deron Bennett
Summary
There are a ton of dead people running around New Orleans courtesy of LaToya and Maggie. Mrs. Turtle shows up and does a bunch of explaining. She doesn’t blame LaToya and Maggie as they are just sick. Shakpana shows up and tries to get his book back from LaToya’s sister. There is a lot of body swapping and danger.
Meanwhile, down in the dreaming, Mistress Erzule and Uncle Monday wait around a lot. She realized she is tired of waiting and tries to find a conduit out of the dreaming to the real world. People get in her way. That makes her really mad and she has a bit of an identity crisis, literally. She is exhausted and so, Uncle Monday, having fresh run out of things to do, take her to the library. That is always a great idea.
Back in NOLA, there is more fighting. Mrs. Turtle goes gigantor and eats the girls. Relax, it isn’t a bad thing, she is really trying to save them.
Positives
The best work of this whole series has been and continues to be Domo. Each issue, Erzule looks different. That is just the story. Domo has to deal with that and make it seamless. Granted, this month, Uncle Monday even mentions it to make sure the reader knows what is going on, but overall, that is spectacular.
Negatives
Deep sigh. I want this book to be good. I keep rooting for it, but I keep getting let down. Just when I feel like I am going to care about LaToya and Maggie, I don’t. This month is was Mrs. Turtle. Yes, she is a great character and she connects the world, but she is just trying to help and she is saying things that matter, but LaToya is terrible to her. She actually calls her a bitch and she disregards everything she is saying as crazy. Really? LaToya has killed everyone she has touched for days but suddenly some person who knows things is crazy? That just doesn’t work. So, I am back to just liking Maggie and not really caring much about the little kids because they have been absent for quite a few issues. The further adventures of Maggie, the wrongfully dead woman who has a heart of gold is a book I would totally read. Then the confusion would be hers and mine and we could solve some mysteries together.
Also, when we cut back to what is going on in the dreaming, I don’t care either. I feel like Erzule and Uncle Monday have just been there too long and it is getting old for the reader. The wind up is so long, which I get because this is a long story, but the same thing keeps happening and then one little change. This month, she has more than one person in her and that is why she keeps changing. That is pretty awesome, but that could have happened a few issues ago. I keep reading these issues over and over to follow the tread, but is just keeps losing me.
Verdict
I am hopeful that by issue six, which would essentially end a story arc that would tie this up for later publication, will bring everything together. I want to see all of these people in the same place, fighting, or struggling or doing something.
