Starhenge: Book 2 - A Kiss For Atticus #4
Writer/Artist: Liam Sharp
Publisher: Image Comics
As Book 2 of Starhenge draws to a close, things start to become clear…
I Want to Heal
It's hard to talk about this issue without getting into specific bits, so Spoiler Warning…
Our troupe finds itself faced with a hulking brute of a man, who challenges the boy's machine bodyguard to battle. The woman (who is revealed to be Amber—I called it!) recognizes the brute as Daryl (I did not call that one). Our heroes are reunited!
Outside of time and space, Taliesin and the mysterious Atticus finish their conversation. As Amber, Daryl, and the rest come to the end of their journey, the boy reveals that he is leaving them. He did his part in helping them get to this point, now he has his own quest to finish.
Amber and the rest approach the Seer they came to see, and through her their memories are restored.
Amber awakens to find Taliesin watching over her and her unborn child. Daryl and Merlin are nearby and well, as well. All have been freed from the false lives they were imprisoned in, with a stronger idea of their mission and the stakes they face…
I Want to Feel
Liam Sharp told me on Facebook that Starhenge: Book 2 #4 would make things clear, and he was right. Are there things I still don't know or understand? Sure. But I have a much stronger feel for where the series is going now.
It was nice to feel a touch of vindication, in the sense that my guess for the identities of our leads in Book 2 were pretty close. Of course the woman was Amber, she's the only female in the group so that one was a no-brainer. I assumed the old man was Merlin, because again that's pretty on the nose. I had guessed that the boy was Daryl, though, and on that I was wrong. The boy has his own path to follow, his own story to tell. And most importantly, he introduced us to the unseen Atticus.
I did not see it coming that Atticus was the boy's machine companion, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense. The machines can exist in all times and places, and it was obvious that Atticus did as well. Plus, when he (it?) meets Adhan (more about her in a minute) at the end of the issue, we learn the meaning of the subtitle A Kiss For Atticus. Turns out it's literal in this case.
So Adhan. She is the daughter of Amber and Daryl, who as she grows up "just knows shit" (Amber's words, not mine). This young girl who will one day become the mother of Merlin (it's pretty funny when Amber freaks out about Merlin calling her "grandmother") is also the one who commands the loyalty of the machine called Atticus.
It's a lot, I know. There is a ton going on in this book at any given moment, and maybe seventy-five percent of it makes sense. There are still things that have transpired up to this point that I've got no clue about. But I have faith that as they become important it will all become clear. In the meantime, we now have a clear direction forward: this family, three generations all in one, must (to quote Amber), "Kill the evil queen, save magic, and head off to the future to apparently build some kind of stargate."
So, you know. Easy-peasy stuff. Well, if it were simple, there'd be no drama, and the story would be pretty boring. So I am content to have more of a clear direction forward for the series, and am anxious to see when we'll get Book 3 and see where we go from here.
What I Thought Was Never Real
Liam Sharp is once again a one-man band, handling all of the creative duties himself. As a result, this is about as pure an expression of one creator's vision as you can hope to find—even if parts of it only make sense to him. I have to quibble about the pacing a little bit. The pace of the miniseries up to this issue has been slower and more deliberate, and now we've got the pedal to the metal. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for all the revelations and character beats we get here, but I can't help but wonder if he originally planned for this to run another issue and then had to shorten it for some reason. Once Amber wakes up herself again, the next couple of pages are walls of text explaining basically everything about the series up to that point, and it's a lot.
On the art side, Sharp's work remains incredible. There are multiple pages covered in text this time around, so we don't get as many huge splash pages, but there is still plenty of detail present even in the smallest of panels. Because of the way this issue plays out, there is no action, and many scenes of people talking. He manages to keep everything looking dynamic and interesting, so the visuals never get boring. Even what seems like a "plain" background has all sorts of symbols and imagery within it, so there is no shortage of things to look at on any given page. And Atticus looks really cool, I have to say.
Let Go of the Pain I Felt So Long
Starhenge: Book 2 - A Kiss For Atticus #4 wraps up this volume by bringing our heroes back together and expanding their multigenerational family unit. The pacing is maybe a bit too fast, giving a touch of whiplash after the more leisurely pace in prior issues—but the character work and story revelations are worth it in the end. The overall picture of the larger Starhenge tapestry becomes clearer, and I'm excited to see where Liam Sharp takes things next.