“Die” #6 kicks off another arc with a significant challenge, more backstory and a bit of storytelling density. Warning: minor spoilers ahead.
Written by Kieron GillenCover by Stephanie Hans
Illustrated & Colored by Stephanie Hans
Lettered by Clayton Cowles NEW STORY ARC! “SPLIT THE PARTY,” Part One: Forget escaping Die – half of our heroes can’t even escape the remains of shattered Glass Town. Is there any way out? Of course there is. It’s just whether or not you can pay the price. Jump aboard the commercial smash series here!
“Die” #6 picks up where the last arc left off – the party’s split, Glass Town is destroyed and Eternal Prussia has complete control. Ash, Matt and Angela are trapped in the ruins, desperate for a way out, while Izzy and Chuck have left to seek their own end to the story. And then there’s Sol.
Gillen and Hans demonstrated at the end of issue #5 that they’re not afraid to pull punches in this universe. With Sol’s death comes a narrowing of possible pathways in that redemption for Ash, and perhaps even Sol, is further away than ever. Gillen crafted a careful parallel between the two in previous issues that jumps to the forefront with Ash’s decision to murder his friend. Whatever Sol’s done to trap his friends, to make them suffer, Ash’s violence in return isn’t easily excused. In this issue, we shift our focus from Ash’s meandering guilt and inability to lead effectively to Angela, whose story leaves a little to be desired.
Gillen digs deep into the esoterica of gaming in “Die,” but knitting Angela’s career as a game developer with the party’s current situation feels ill-timed, if rendered well. Hans’s flashback scenes are drawn with a gentleness we haven’t seen from Angela before now, so there’s clear value in getting to know the character. She’s been erratic, confused and distant, perpetually the little sister to the more competent and forceful Ash, and we’ve largely seen her through Ash’s perspective. Giving over some pages to Angela’s point of view does well to broaden the storytelling, but the choice to do so at the beginning of a new arc is a strange one. The choice is meant to show Angela’s odd arrested development as the soul-seeking and deep confusion it’s actually been all along, and to give her agency as she seeks out a different deal to get herself and her friends out of dodge, but it doesn’t do much to render her less childish. It’s also unclear why she’s choosing to recount her life story now, whereas Izzy’s reflections on her liminal godlike state landed better in the previous arc when she learned of the people treating her diary as gospel.
It’s not entirely clear why we need to connect to Angela in this moment – especially when Ash and Sol’s dynamic is ripe for further mining and scaffolding – and thus the forward momentum of the story’s jammed into the last few pages, almost as an afterthought. This storyline would be better served in the next issue, when we have a bit more mental space after diving back into the immediate action. Usurping those emotional and storytelling beats is a choice, and there’s an argument to be made that Angela’s internal chaos is a fine balance to the external chaos in Glass Town, but we almost lose the narrative thread in this issue. Gillen punctures the hunted feeling and the stakes set up previously with this swerve, and it doesn’t entirely work.
That said, Hans’s art is as dreamy and chaotic as ever. What doesn’t work in the scaffolding does work in visual execution. Angela’s physicality is a sharp contrast to her flashbacks in which she’s neat, tidy, static and confined behind a computer screen. We see her almost constantly in motion as she tries to find the Fair, and as stated above, the way she sees herself is at once more girlish and less childish than the way Ash and the rest of the party see her. And, despite the issues with her story’s placement, the break from Ash’s perspective is a nice one. Case seems to be the only creature she can relate to, and her agency with the Fair adds depth to the choices she has made, and the ones she’ll likely make in the future. Hans lends Case the same fluid grace as Angela, almost as if he’s an extension of her body, and the two work well in concert on the page. The Fair are also intriguing from a design standpoint, if a touch basic in their narrative delivery.
Continued belowHans’s color palette revolves almost entirely around Angela’s cape as a focal point, which is in turn constantly in motion to highlight her dynamism. Light sources are burnished, either in the eyes of the massive machines or the perpetual dawn/twilight of the ruined Glass Town. The sickly cast from the previous issue is dialed down a little, and lovely blues and pinks infuse the scenery as Angela gets closer to the Fair. With Angela at the fore there’s slightly less sterility, as if a hint of the magic that once infused the game – before her injury, before the deaths, before everything – still lurks in the quiet spaces, much as fair gold awaits the vigilant and curious.
Cowles’s lettering is competent, with the same clear delineation between Ash’s narration, the party’s dialogue and Sol’s undead provocations. The world of “Die” is an odd balance of fantasy softness and RPG edge, and Cowles’s fonts play up that softness and lost youth without sacrificing any regimentation or readability. Sound effects are minimal, which is a good choice with Hans’s detailed art and the serious tone Gillen aims for.
Overall, “Die” #6 is still a good issue. It’s important that we learn more about all of the characters, and if Angela’s story is placed strangely, it’s still executed pretty well. Gillen, Hans and Cowles don’t seem to be sacrificing any imagination for cynicism in this series, and as the action trips on and we change locations, and deal with Ash’s seemingly endless bad decisions, we should be in for quite a ride.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – “Die” #6 is structured strangely but ultimately succeeds as a new arc intro, with the same level of artistic craft we’ve come to expect from Hans in particular.
