Starhenge: Book 2 - A Kiss for Atticus #3
Writer/Artist: Liam Sharp
Publisher: Image Comics
The head-trip mixture of science fiction, fantasy, and Arthurian lore that is Starhenge continues in issue #3 of this four-issue miniseries. Do things start to come together and make a bit more sense this time around?
Well…
Reunited and it Feel So… ?
Our three Book 2 leads—the female artist, the old man, and the demon-hunting boy—have all entered the mysterious Blade Runner-esque city. One by one, they are greeted by a hooded and cloaked Death's Head-looking figure with glowing red eyes. It tells each of them a variation on "You should not be here," which doesn't do anything to make them less confused.
Finally, the three individuals meet. It is agreed that they all feel familiar, but no one has any memories of meeting before. They decide to move forward together and see what they can learn…
Elsewhere and possibly elsewhen, two unseen individuals called Taliesin and Atticus discuss the trio, plus what once was and what will be. In the end, a hooded figure with a staff emerges from a cave and heads into the city…
The World I Know
I think I stopped trying to figure out what's going on, and I'm just going with the flow.
Sometimes I read too fast and don't grasp the fine details of what I'm reading, and that particular habit doesn't help at all with something like Starhenge. Plus, I have a mental blind spot where I don't always process the more esoteric stuff as well.
This is all a fancy way to say that I'm lost.
I know for sure that the woman is Amber. There's sort of no other suspects there. Between the old man, the boy, and the new figure with the staff at the end, we've got Daryl and Merlin covered—even if I don't know just who is who.
I recognize the name Taliesin. That's the name of a bard that is connected to King Arthur in most versions of the myth. In Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle specifically, Taliesin is actually from the lost city of Atlantis and is the father of Merlin. I think Liam Sharp is going more in the bard direction here with the character, though. Taliesin isn't seen on the page here, merely involved in conversations with another character by the name of Atticus off-panel. Now Atticus I have no idea on, that's not a name that I recognize from the various versions of Arthurian lore. Whoever he is, he must be important—he's got his name in the title of the book, after all.
A decent amount of this issue is devoted to conversations between the woman, the old man, and the boy, so I had an easier time following all of their dialogue than I did the various hooded figures and offscreen conversations. I wish I could tell you that I had a moment where everything just "clicked" for me, but that hasn't happened yet.
I'm guessing that many of the disparate plots and conversations we've been seeing will come to a head, and maybe even conclude, next issue. I just hope that things become clearer as they do. Right now, I feel like I'm trying to put together a puzzle without the box lid that has a picture on it. The other thing I'm a bit concerned about is that we end Book 2 in almost the exact place as Book 1 ended. There was a book in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series where it started at a certain place, then the characters had adventures for hundreds and hundreds of pages, and when the book ended… it ended in the same place that it began. I don't want that for Starhenge. I want to feel like there was meaningful movement and growth. So in a way, I'm putting a lot of pressure on issue #4.
It isn't Just Talk, Talk, Talk
Liam Sharp is once again the judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to this adventure. Writing, art, colors—it's all him. As I've already mentioned, the story is not the easiest to follow. There's a lot more dialogue this issue, and it's pretty strong overall. Everyone has unique or distinct voices, and the scenes move well from one to another.
Sharp's art continues to be the biggest draw for this series. Even when he has a page with enough text to make Chris Claremont or Brian Bendis blush, he still finds a way to make the artwork detailed and engaging. When he gets to do a splash page of some sort, it's usually pretty jaw-dropping. We close the issue out with another person walking into the Blade Runner city, but this one is garbed more like someone from Arthur's time with a fur cloak and a wooden staff, so the dichotomy makes for a very cool visual.
I Know the Pieces Fit
Starhenge: Book 2 - A Kiss for Atticus #3 is another visually spectacular issue that is starting to feel a bit more impenetrable story-wise. Our three leads for this volume are all together and moving forward now, and the titular Atticus has made an off-panel appearance, so I'm hopeful the pieces are in place with a big finale that brings it all together and propels the series forward into Book 3.