Comic Review: A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance #5

Image Comics

Writer: Rick Remender

Artist: André Lima Araújo

Colors: Chris O’Halloran

Letters: Rus Wooton

A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance continues to slowly unravel its mysteries. As Sonny makes plans for escape, readers are once again left to determine exactly how familiar he is with the line of work he finds himself engaged. He continues to follow a seemingly professional plan to extract Neva and her son from Mayor Oak’s clutches. Yet he blunders and violently shakes his way through nearly every encounter. He uses firearms gracelessly, but effectively.

The mystery of Sonny pales in comparison to Neva–the driving force behind the A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance narrative. We know absolutely nothing about her other than her willingness to die for her son and the fact that Mayor Oak wants her dead. This unseen villain’s simple, undefined desire has yielded what essentially amounts to a four-issue chase sequence.

And what a chase it’s been!

Artistically, the book remains unimpeachable. André Lima Araújo does great work detailing a white supremacist bar, but his art really crackles in cleanly paneled action sequences that expertly balance movement, impact, and facial reactions. Sonny takes a visceral beating at one point in #5, but like many sequences in A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance, the methodically anatomized scene suddenly leaps in tension, charging toward another whirlwind climax. Because it’s not A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance without sub-machine guns, car wrecks, and a healthy serving of yellow action lines.

It would appear A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance #5 has a particularly brutal ending. While horrific death is no stranger to the fledgling series, it would mark the first time that I’ve questioned the measured pacing of the mystery. There’s too much to explore at this point in the story to be doing away with characters of import.

Early in the issue, Sonny catches a news story depicting the growing crime spree he finds himself adjacent to. It calls to mind the police detective thread from #2. Rick Remender has placed a number of trains on the track. With two issues to go, a collision feels imminent.