The After Realm #3 Featured Reviews 

“The After Realm” #3

By | September 24th, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

“The After Realm” #3 catches us up to Oona’s present with a troll battle, a map mishap and an old friend coming to the rescue. Warning: spoilers ahead.

Cover by Michael Avon Oeming

Written & Illustrated by Michael Avon Oeming
Colored by Taki Soma
Lettered by Shawn Lee
Oona encounters the dead god, Odin! With his body and mind taken over by maggot-like beings, Oona must escape from its wrath as she fights her way through his larvae children. From the writer of Thor: Ragnarok and co-creator of POWERS, MICHAEL AVON OEMING.

“The After Realm” #3 clears the flashback hurdle, though there are a few questions left lingering after the last issue’s recap ends, and grounds us in Oona’s strange present. She’s traveling the Realms, mapping and hoping to find Pikki, except Pooka’s nowhere to be found – or is he?

Oeming creates a unique fantasy realm that’s a mash-up of Gen-X media, video games, Dungeons & Dragons and Norse mythology. There are very few nods to Tolkien here – a nice break from more standard fare – which means more tricksters and bloodshed and less British reserve. Each fantasy race, town or community has their own vibe. The trolls feel ripped out of Escape from New York, the elves from an illustrated Edda and the humans from Conan the Barbarian. It can be difficult to create a cohesive narrative and visual experience from disparate sources, but each influence feels lived in and contributes to a larger whole. Oona’s older now, but we still see the rash and impulsive troll blood boil up occasionally, while her elf nature keeps her dedicated to her path and her mission to map the Realms.

After two issues building a backstory that appears to be wrapped, it’s still a bit odd to switch our complete focus to the present in this third issue. Though the final scene of Oona and her mother reconciling after Loki’s re-captured feels like a good endpoint to the previous storyline, it’s still a bit unclear if we’re going to revisit that timeline at any point. There’s a time gap between Oona’s adventures now and the chaos behind her, and while some of the questioning that arises could be intentional on Oeming’s part, it’s still a bit jarring. Not so much that it should be considered a detriment to the story in this issue, but the questions do remain.

As for the art, Oeming’s peaky, cartoonish style is a perfect fit for this dark fantasy world. Oona’s shock of hair is particularly expressive – explosive when she’s in the middle of an action scene, spiky when she’s upset and smooth when she’s at rest. Which isn’t often, given her adventurous nature. Oeming ages her appropriately, too. She’s taller and her features are less rounded and childlike, but she’s still recognizable as Oona. Oeming’s cartooning does what it should by adding a spark of originality and emotion to each character, visible through specific details that are unique to them. The line can break down a bit in action scenes, and faces become slightly distorted, but there’s nothing egregious that doesn’t also contribute to a chaotic mood or tension when we need it.

Soma uses a broad palette and subtle gradients to add a lot of depth to “The After Realm,” with such notable pages as the establishing splash of the small village, and the more enclosed look at the underground town Oona visits with the villager to find her way to the swamp. Each has its own unifying scheme – orange and purple for the exterior village, and brown and green for the interior – that works within each individual scene and contributes to the feel of the whole book. The cityscape where the trolls live and forge their swords boasts Soma’s expert ability to contrast foregrounded characters and background architecture. The trolls and their skulls, motorcycles and clothing are done in orange and yellow, while the city backdrop is picked out in blues and purples. A black sky filled with grey smoke is balanced by the simple brown bridge, and the whole scene lets us stop and pore over Oeming’s detail, and Soma’s balance and style.

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Lee has a lot of work to do to place balloons in this book. Oeming leaves plenty of space on the page, and Soma’s ability to pick out intricacies with blocks of color help with clarity, but there’s still a lot going on that we want to dig into, and dialogue can distract. Lee chooses a blocky font with a gentle upward curve on the bars of the As and Hs that’s easy to read, and stylish enough to blend in with the book’s overall aesthetic. There are some fun burst balloons with different fonts and good sound effects to mull over, as well. The font and balloon stylings Lee chooses for Woden are interesting enough to pick them out from Oona’s dialogue, but not too intricate or arcane to impede readability.

Overall, “The After Realm” #3 is a fun and visually interesting installment of Oeming’s larger story. We’re invested enough in Oona as a character to start to pick out where she’s grown and where she has growing to do still, and Pooka’s reappearance raises interesting questions that might pay off down the line. Oeming, Soma and Lee work well together to create a fantasy experience that’s unique, and grounded in what matters: character growth and emotion.

Final Verdict: 8.5/10 – “The After Realm” #3 is another fun and well-wrought entry into Oeming, Soma and Lee’s larger story.


Christa Harader

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