Finally some answers! After eight enigmatic issues, one of the major mysteries of “Rachel Rising” is explained — and the reveal is definitely worth the wait.
[image width=208 height=320 lightbox=true hidecaption=true align=”left”]http://multiversitystatic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2012/07/rachelrising9.jpg[/image]Written and Illustrated by Terry Moore
Rachel’s ability to predict a person’s time of death is useful when tracking a serial killer in Manson, but the unwelcome news also proves to be a powerful weapon against even the hardest of hearts. Rachel takes creepy to whole new level in issue #9!
I’ll admit that I have a bit of a crush on “Rachel Rising”. It’s the comic I look forward to most every month, and every month it creeps the living bajeezus out of me. That said, this issue was something of a surprise. Instead of the usual small town scenes haunted by a sense of dread, we get what can only be described as an infodump. A central mystery is explained, and the answer is satisfyingly eerie, gesturing toward some interesting terrain to be covered in future issues. So: before I go ahead and get into some spoilery discussion, I’ll say that Terry Moore brings the creepy as usual here, and if you’ve followed “Rachel Rising” this far, you’d be crazy not to pick it up.
In this issue we don’t see much of Rachel herself, or of Jet; the main incident is the blonde woman’s confrontation with Zoe, where we learn the true nature of each. Turns out they’re both demons — and while this isn’t much of a surprise in the case of the blonde woman, (or as we now know her to be, Lilith), Zoe’s predicament is a little more complicated. She’s been ten years old since 1955, when she was possessed by the demon Malus. It’s not the blonde woman who makes her kill — which is what appeared to be the case in past issues — it’s Malus, and all along Lilith has been watching Zoe to be sure that it really is him.
Like all of Terry Moore’s dialogues, this exchange is really well blocked, flowing naturally even as it features the most unnatural of elements. Artistically speaking, the fact that it involves a demon (i.e., something we haven’t seen drawn by Moore before) is the icing on the cake; Moore draws the heck out of Malus, in this conversation and on the cover. He’s one part skeevy guy at the party, one part otherwordly, and the result is a truly disquieting character. Lilith shines as well: finally something more than a silent enigmatic figure, she comes across fierce and reactive at the same time as motherly, with a clear personal agenda. She’s also gorgeous in the way only a Terry Moore woman is gorgeous — which is to say, gorgeous in a way that makes you wonder what the gorgeousness is belying.
Obviously, Moore isn’t giving away all the answers to the series’ mysteries in this exchange: we’re still not exactly sure what’s happened to Rachel — and now Jet — to put them in a not-quite-alive/not-quite-dead state although there appear to be some hints, and the curse that’s keeping Lilith and Malus in Manson isn’t made crystal clear either. It’s easy to infer that she was one of the witches executed centuries ago by the inhabitants of Manson, but the details of her revenge plot don’t come through. At any rate it appears that Malus’ planned extrapolation of this plot (something about using the hatred in Manson to corrupt the whole world) will be the main substance of future issues, and that Jet — as is revealed is this issue’s superb cliffhanger — will be one of the means by which he does so.
Moore is really raising the stakes here: Rachel and Jet’s friendship has been such a strong presence in the series, grounding its supernatural content with something believable and charming, and I’m anxious to see how Moore handles the introduction of Malus to all this. Actually, “Rachel Rising” #9 is a stake-raiser through and through, requiring a bit of an infodump to get the new elements of plot moving but an absorbing and arresting read nonetheless. “Rachel Rising” is becoming a big story indeed, encompassing the earthly and the demonic and the places where they intersect, and if #9 is any indication, its readers are in for a hell of a time.
Final Verdict: 8.5 — Buy
