Ah, “Rachel Rising”. The consistently good comic. The consistently creepy comic. But as Moore reveals more and more about the horrors afflicting the town of Manson, there’s a little less unease in the air…
Written and Illustrated by Terry Moore
The Manson serial killer is filling the morgue with victims and the police are baffled with no clues or leads. In the search for her own killer, Rachel finds the serial killer hiding – in Manson’s bloody past! Guaranteed to make your happy place scream!
We all knew that “Rachel Rising” couldn’t stay the same elliptical, mystifying comic that it was for so many issues. Eventually there comes a time for some answers, and that time was last issue, where Malus was introduced and it became clear that this is indeed a story about witchcraft, demons, and revenge.
This chapter continues in the same vein in that it focuses chiefly on delivering information; there’s another info-dumping conversation that, while beautifully and eerily staged, feels a little arbitrary, and we also check in again with Jet. But while it seemed last issue that matters with Jet were taking a serious turn indeed, the consequences of her — well, let’s call it her new affliction — are only momentarily seen. Instead we get the same kind of sisterly interactions between Jet and Rachel as before, as they try to hunt down some information, and there’s only a hint as to how — potentially — things are going to change between them. Moore is telling this part of the story in his trademark, decompressed way, and as usual, it’s effective in eliciting a real sense of menace. Meanwhile, a scene with Lilith in the second half of the book has got so much in it that it necessitates more than one read, and maybe a glance over previous issues. Certain small details are beginning to culminate into something big and complicated, and the demand on your attention and readerly involvement is proportional.
As you may have noticed, there’s a bit of a disconnect here: when one half of the issue creeps along at a slow pace, and the other half feels like it would have benefited by the addition of a few more pages in order to let all the information breathe, a certain imbalance makes itself felt. It may all be necessary to the pacing of the work when viewed in macro terms (which is probably the same thing as saying “when it’s read in trade”); obviously not all plot threads are going to progress at the same rate, especially when one of them sprung up more recently. But this issue definitely feels “off”, and is less compelling an installment for this wonkiness in pacing.
That said, there are some neat little touches to Moore’s art in this issue, the kind of details that really draw you in to a page. By far the most interesting development is the change in Jet’s looks due to her affliction. She’s definitely still Jet, recognizable except for her dark eyes. But her whole aura is different. It’s a testament to Moore’s genius that I can’t quite pinpoint what it is about her portrayal that makes her presence so strange and scary; it’s definitely something to do with expression, but it’s hard to pick out a good example panel. That may be the most remarkable facet to Moore’s light touch as an artist: some aspects of the art are so subtle that they don’t come across on a panel-by-panel level, instead bleeding past them and infusing the whole issue with a certain mood.
There’s also a really lovely splash page to enjoy, although this one somewhat belies the term by not being “splashy” in the slightest. Depicting a quiet landscape, with the town of Manson looking tiny in the distance, it serves more as a meditative — and again, menacing — silence, setting a wide spacer between the scenes with Jet and the scenes with Lilith. It’s certainly needed, because what follows is one of the scariest encounters in “Rachel Rising” so far. Set out in four consecutive pages that are entirely without dialogue — and ending with a significant but enigmatic action — it’s food for nightmares for sure. And while we get a few hints, in the ensuing conversation, as to whom it involved, the horror here is based on a strong foundation of bewilderment. In amongst all the answers, Moore finds ways to raise some questions, and this one is a doozy. It’s all framed by the mounds of snow that have been accumulating throughout this arc; Moore really draws the hell out of snow, to the point where you can almost hear it crunching under Rachel’s feet.
Cap it all off with one of Moore’s most hard-hitting covers yet — that is quite the smile! — and you’ve got another visually accomplished chapter to Rachel’s story. Certainly, on the level of plot, the pace flags a little here; but overall it seems unlikely that “Rachel Rising” in winding down. On the contrary, this issue has the air of the calm that comes before the storm. It’s a necessary — if slightly inconsistent — bridge between more intense and action-dependent chapters, and, like that splash panel, it seems like it’s serving its purpose well.
Final Verdict: 8.0 — Still solid, but definitely not the strongest issue in this arc
