One of my goals for 2022, was the get over to my local library and read more comics out of their diverse GN section. Long story short, I arranged for the YA Graphic Novel section to be located immediately as one walks into the main room. The adult GN section was moved to the adult fiction area, but it is at least right on the edge of the stacks as one walks down the row. The point is, that my library has a pretty solid Graphic Novel, comics and manga section and I donate stuff from time to time, so even if the budget isn’t there, it still grows.
Which brings me to my last visit. I caught sight of The Invisible Kingdom, Volume 1, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Christian Ward. In Volume 1, we learn about a system in space, which is being torn apart by late-stage Capitalism. Lux, a massive corporation, keeps everyone in thrall with consumer goods, tracking their purchases, actions and desires and using that power to influence governments. The only path out of working for Lux or it’s vassal governments is to renounce everything and become a None.
We meet Grix, a captain of a delivery ship and her crew, and Vess, who has left her family and her destiny to be a breeder of children, to enter the path to the Invisible Kingdom as a None. Grix is being screwed by Lux and is on the run from them, and Vess discovers a secret about the Nones that puts her in peril.
In Volume 2, Grix and Vess are working together, but things are not going well. Well…actually things between Grix and Vess are going well and it’s confusing the heck out of both of them. Complicating things, Grix’s ex is a Lux representative who has to decide where her loyalties lie.
When the only independent government abandons them and they are captured by a bunch of (apparently) unaffiliated salvagers, things look very bad for Grix and Vess. To save Grix, Vess bonds with her in a way that terrifies the young renunciate…
Volume 3, find Vess having run away again, this time to a sect that opposes the main branch of the Nones. Grix is desperate to find her, and in doing so, stumbles upon the truth that Vess learned. Now two religious orders, one with a deadly weapon, and a massive conglomerate are after Grix. But she, and Vess, have allies they didn’t know about. Will a small delivery crew be able to destroy the largest powers in the system?
Well, yes, obviously. It’s not like it’s really ever in doubt. honestly. The “what” is not why you’ll want to read this comic. ^_^
You’ll want to read this comic for the art, as goofy as that sounds. The palette is astounding. Both on-planet and in-space scenes are gorgeous. I would gladly own any page of this comic as a piece of art.
You’ll also want to read this comic because it is actually the gruff space captain, uber-naive young traveler thing we’ve seen 10000000000 times, but with two alien women, fighting the huge powers that be in an impossible war that can’t be won…and it works. Are there a few handwaves? Sure. But not so many that the story doesn’t hang together. It was a solid read and, again, beautifully illustrated. The girl gets the girl, the baddies are hoist by their own petard and the explosion was magnificent.
Just to wrap up the larger story here, my library system had Volume 1, but not 2 or 3. So I bought them and gave them to the library, so they had the whole set. This way I know you can Interlibrary Loan the whole series. ^_^ If you haven’t checked to see if your library has Graphic Novels in their system, you should! A lot of library systems have GNs as part of their ebook lending as well. It’s a great way to discover stuff you didn’t know about and read stuff you might not otherwise make time for . (I checked out Tokyo Ghoul today, as it happens. Not bad, but Red Garden was better.)
Ratings:
Art – 10
Story – 8 Solid, well-told, but tread no new ground
Characters – 7 The good guys were as expected, the bad guys utterly carbon copy
Service – Alien humanoid sexuality parsed in a few ways, some meant to be harassing
Queer – 8 See above, but our protags are both female as we see it
Overall – 8
A good space action fairy tale, with great art. Definitely worth a look.
