The world changed when the animals woke up. The world was rocked on its axis and every notion humans ever had about civilisation, about philosophy, about the nature of the mind has been thrown out of the window. That’s the backdrop for “Animosity” from Marguerite Bennett and Rafael de Latorre as they chart the journey of a girl and her dog through the American wasteland.
Read on below for our full review of “Animosity” #5 to find out why this is one comic you can’t afford to miss.
Written by Marguerite Bennett
Illustrated by Rafael de Latorre
A safe haven looms on the horizon, but the walled city will not take all of Jesse and Sandor’s companions. Who will live, and who will die to save the pack?Another action-packed issue brought to you by MARGUERITE BENNETT (DC Comics’ Bombshells & Marvel’s A-Force) with beautiful art by SuperZero’s RAFAEL DE LATORRE!
In its first couple of issues, it was hard to get a read on just what direction Marguerite Bennett and Rafael de Latorre were heading with “Animosity”. It was a powerhouse of speculative fiction, taking one small question (What if animals had the same level of sapience as humans?) and using it to turn our world completely on its head and examining the consequences. As we saw the world ripped apart across political lines that saw animals attempt to gain equal rights with humans and try to manage the influx of population while many reacted out of fear and anger, Bennett and de Latorre zeroed in on the journey of the human girl Jesse and the bloodhound Sandor.
This fifth issue picks in a world where that question has dissolved the very notions of civilisation as we know it. Jesse and Sandor and their companions travel through a desolate landscape of America, on the look out for hunters and scavengers. There’s a very post-apocalyptic feeling to the journey as they loot burned out gas stations and camp in the words. Bennett uses this as a backdrop to explore the characters and question the nature of, well, life itself and it’s here that the book really shines. So far, the focus has been on Sandor and his quest to bring Jesse to San Francisco, but this issue throws a wrench in the works as Jesse gets her first period. This creates an immediate divide between the two which creates the emotional crux of the issue.
It’s a divide that leaves Jesse seeking emotional support and allows Bennett to develop the side characters of the American Bison whose name surely begins with a B and a gender neutral Pallas cat who trained themselves to be a doctor. Meanwhile, Sandor has a crisis of faith as the difference between Jesse and himself is put in stark relief, despite his paternal instincts for her. This comic is amazing. It is a story that, on face value, could easily be laughed away (simply describing it makes it sound like Homeward Bound crossed with The Last Of Us), but shines because of the earnestness of Bennett’s script. At no point does this feel tongue in cheek and that’s what allows the serious inter-character drama to take hold despite the fact that nearly everyone is a talking animal.
Consider: the opening page of this issue is of two shrimp discussing the nature of life and sustenance. Even shrimp consume stuff like plankton which, after the Wake, may have genuine sapience and consciousness. The question posed is how can a being like a shrimp petition for the fish that prey on them to respect them as sapient beings when they ignore the voices of the beings that they prey on? This isn’t done as a bit, but more a prologue to the larger themes at play in the rest of the issue as the group begins to realise that even they might be being hunted. It’s speculative fiction at its purest, taking a premise that might be considered silly in less skilled hands and shaping it into a story that tackles questions about our own humanity. It’s writing that solidifies Marguerite Bennett as an irreplaceable talent in comics.
Mind you, it’s not just the strength of the writing that “Animosity” has going for it. The art team of Rafael de Latorre and colourist Rob Schwager do a fantastic job of realising Bennet’s script. As much as this comic would not work without the earnestness of Bennett’s writing, it would equally not work without the earnestness of the artwork. This is, unquestionably, a comic book about talking animals and it would have so easily undermined Bennett’s writing had the artwork come off as goofy and cartoonish. Instead, de Latorre infuses these animals with a sense of naturalism and characterisation that doesn’t undermine the central concept of the series.
Continued belowFor example, one of Sandor and Jesse’ companions is a goat in a leather jacket. That sentence is, inherently, silly. However, thanks to Bennet’s writing, Zarza’s gruff demeanour and development over the course of the issue makes him feel like a fully actualised character instead of a visual joke. This is elevated by de Latorre and Schwager who bring a sense of naturalism to the goat. There’s no cartoonish exaggeration of features here, more a subtle sense of anthropomorphism in the facial features of the animals that allow for a genuine expressiveness. It must be a hard line to walk, not allowing the art to fall into that cartoonish spectrum, but de Latorre makes it look so easy.
All in all, “Animosity” #5 is proof that this series is taking a journey that we all need to be a part of. Marguerite Bennett’s writing is full of heart, earnest to the core and is using such a simple, speculative concept to explore the nature of relationships and how we, as humans, interact with the world around it. Rafael de Latorre and Rob Schwager, meanwhile, is realising that writing in gorgeous artwork with simple, clean storytelling and an unmatched level or earnestness that makes this comic work. It might be a little too early to give a comic this level of praise, but “Animosity” feels important. Like the kind of literature that will still be with us years from now kind of important. At least, I can only hope that’s how it goes.
Final Verdict: 9.7 – Seriously, a must read comic.
