The Sacrificers vol. 2
Pigeon now has the power of a god at his fingertips, but he’s not sure about how to use it yet. What he does know is that he wants to get back to his family. The question is whether or not they’re even alive in the wake of the cataclysms that have gripped the land following Luna’s death in the previous volume. As for Luna’s daughter, Soluna, whose actions led to Pigeon acquiring her power, she’s forced for the first time in her life to struggle for basic sustenance just to stay alive. Yet that’s going to take her to some dark places where her lack of self-awareness is going to endanger far more than just herself.
That’s right everyone! In this second volume of “The Sacrificers” THINGS GET WORSE. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone given that this series is written by Rick Remender, a man who loves grinding down his protagonists. This is definitely one of the better examples of how he does this, though, as Pigeon’s struggle is enlivened by his realization of what he can do with his newfound power, while it’s fascinating to watch Soluna’s descent just to see how bad it’s going to get. More interesting is seeing how the villains struggle with everything going on here. I say “villains” and not “antagonists” because even though Remender makes an effort to give them some depth, they’re still coming off as the bad guys in this story.
Regular artist Max Fiumara also continues to do career-best work in this series as well. The opening three issues run the gamut from city-destroying aquatic calamity, to harrowing personal struggle, to human-vs-god melee combat and the artist makes it all appear fittingly epic. The following two issues are drawn by Remender’s “A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance” collaborator, Andre Lima Araujo, and while he lacks Fiumara’s larger-than-life sensibilities, his stripped-down work still delivers in stories that focus more squarely on the human struggles of this series. Which is one that is quickly establishing itself as one of the better ones to come from its writer.