Abe Sapien vol. 5: Sacred Places

Spoiler Warning:  These “Sacred Places” aren’t really all that interesting.  Much like the previous volume, the majority of the stories here lack a clear direction to tell us why we should care about the title character’s ongoing journey.  After freeing a captured woman, Grace, in the opening story, she follows Abe as he gets mixed up with some people looking for a healer, a crazed woman with removable body parts, and returns to the place where he got shot and began his latest transformation.  There’s lots of portentious talk, a dream sequence with Hellboy and Langdon Caul — Abe’s previous self — and a bunch of monsters that either need a beatdown or to be vanquished by spiritual means.  In short, a lot of the stuff that makes the Mignolaverse so unique and appealing.  Problem is, most all of this is done better in “B.P.R.D.” as it would appear that co-writer John Arcudi is much better with establishing narrative goals and working towards them with snappier dialogue.  “Abe Sapien” co-writer Scott Allie hasn’t really measured up in that department yet.

However, all is not lost as the opening issue, “The Garden (I),” shows that Mignola and Allie can tell an interesting story here when they really put their mind to it.  The story introduces us to Grace and her captor and slowly chronicles her eventual rescue at Abe’s hands.  Yet its the way the tale is told which makes it interesting.  It unfolds through images presented through three horizontal rectangles evenly spaced throughout each page and narrated through text boxes.  You don’t know what’s going on at first, but the slow reveal of information is captivating and you can’t help but be drawn in by the slow unraveling of the characters and their histories.  It’s also one of Max Fiumara’s better artistic efforts as each image carefully moves the story forward and his characters look less misshapen than usual.  It’s the high point of the series so far for me, and I wish the rest of it were as focused and daring.