There are a lot of comics out there, but some stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This,” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look at the philosophical post-apocalyptic tale of animals and sentience, “Animosity.” Note: I won’t be talking about “Animosity: Evolution” or the “Animosity: The Rise” trilogy.
Who’s This By?
“Animosity” is written by Marguerite Bennett (“Batwoman,” “Bombshells”) and drawn by Rafael De Latorre (“Superzero”) with coloring from Rob Schwager (“Jonah Hex,” “Captain America” (2002)) and letters by Marshall Dillon (“Wayward,” “Glitterbomb”).
What’s This All About?
Imagine a world where every animal in the world suddenly became sentient in the way we currently define sentience. They can communicate with us, are conscious of themselves and have memories that span the entirety of their lives. In essence, everything definition humans have used to differentiate us from other animals has been removed…and some of the animals are angry.
We follow a young girl named Jessie and her dog Sandor as they navigate a world that has been upended by this change in consciousness. How does society fare when the animals can audibly think and act upon those thoughts? How does one navigate this world? And how does a world sustain itself when the usual demands upon it are thrown into disarray? These are just some of the questions that “Animosity” concerns itself with. Think Mad Max meets Zoo only with a more complicated cast and much more philosophy.
So, Why Should I Read This?
“Animosity” is not your typical post-apocalyptic narrative. It has all the trappings of one – societal collapse, early mass die offs, a lone group of people trying to survive in the wild, a new paradigm centered around going from encampment to encampment – but instead of focusing on the horrors of the collapse and the ways in which our main characters survive, Bennett chooses to focus on the interpersonal relationships between the characters and the philosophical discussions they have. Also, most of the characters are animals so there’s, you know, that.
Maybe it isn’t fair to say that the post-apocalypse genre doesn’t usually deal with the interpersonal relationships between its main cast. Most good additions to the genre thrive because of the drama and connections within the central cast; it wouldn’t be worth reading/watching/listening to otherwise. What makes this story special, however, is the centrality of the animals to the story. Imagine if, in “The Walking Dead,” most of the main cast were zombies. It feels wrong, doesn’t it? The zombies are an enemy, the enemy that started all of the problems. They are an obstacle to overcome.
Here, while the sentience of animals is the cause of the societal collapse, they are merely agents of change. They are not a mindless horde, a faceless, uncaring virus or a natural disaster of epic proportions. They are creatures who are only now self-aware and able to comprehend what their lives were like beforehand. They act and, as such, their thoughts and actions are integral to the story on all sides. As enemies to Jessie, Sandor and crew. As allies. As characters with trajectories and plots and feelings. They caused the collapse of Jesse’s world but they are just as responsible for building a new one.
I think I’ve done enough meta-analysis for now. While ideas like these are great, they are nothing without the writing and art to back them up and Bennett and De Latorre do not let us down. This might be some of Bennett’s finest writing. Granted, I have not read “Insexts” but of her other stuff, this is her at her best. She’s darkly funny, the dialogue is always rich and layered with meaning, and every character has a unique and distinct voice. While the story itself is fairly slow-going, there is never a boring moment.
Bennett balances action and horror with slower, more philosophically minded scenes which for a series all about every animal on the planet becoming sentient is very important. These are questions that would be asked and are damn well interesting to explore. Issue 8 is entirely devoted to larger questions like these and, again, Bennett’s writing keeps it engaging and varied, not letting it get too dry while also not losing the seriousness of the conversations.
Continued belowThat said, I’d be hard pressed to say whether or not these scenes would work without De Latorre’s art. He manages the task of making realistic animals express human emotions without breaking the ways in which they move or look. More than that, he knows how to construct a page to build tension and to heighten the emotions of the characters on the page. His choices always feel deliberate so as to make the reading experience as seamless as possible, something that is lacking in some of the mediocre books out on the stands.
Take one page in issue six. Jesse, throughout the page, is positioned off to the right and in the bottom corner of the panels. She is kept small and tightly packed into the panels, reflecting her mental state as feeling trapped with the specter of the past. The only time she is shown in an open panel, with a full body shot, is at the bottom of the page where she is curled up and surrounded by empty space, driving home just how alone she feels.
As this page illustrates, this series is also fucking heartbreaking. I won’t detail any of those events, as I couldn’t do them justice, but between De Latorre’s art and Bennett’s writing not an issue goes by that your heartstrings aren’t pulled.
There is more to talk about, as there always is with a series as thought-filled and emotional as this, but I’ll leave you with this final piece of praise: Bennett never lets us forget where her characters come from and never lets it be a simple categorization. Jesse’s Judaism is shaped by an intermarried, secular but still connected heritage and this is reflected in the conversations she has and the comments Sandor makes. It deepens her characters in ways that we do not see enough of in other post-apocalyptic stories and makes one think about all the things that are lost when the world is thrown into chaos.
How Can You Read It?
Issue thirteen of “Animosity” drops today so go to your local comic shop or preferred digital outlet, such as ComiXology, for back-issues of the first twelve issues. For trade collectors, there are two volumes out so far. Vol. 1 collects #1-4 and the first “Animosity: The Rise” issue and Vol. 2 collects #5-8 and the “World of Animosity” one-shot.
If you’re into deluxe hardcovers, on April 18th the “Animosity: Year One” hardcover comes out, collecting #1-8 and the “World of Animosity” one-shot.
If you’ve read all those and want more “Animosity,” all three issues of “Animosity: The Rise” are out and will be collected into one volume on April 18th. In addition, the first four issues of “Animosity: Evolution” are out, with the fifth one slated for April 11th and the first volume, which collects #1-5 and is supposed to come out May 30th.
