Comic Review: Bitter Root #1

Bitter Root #1

Image Comics

Writer: David F. Walker

Artists: Chuck Brown, Rico Renzi, and Sanford Greene

Calling it now, Bitter Root will be optioned for the silver screen. If it continues on its current path, this will wind up on a ton of must-read lists. This first issue has the job of propping itself up to wrestle with issues which still plague society today. We open on a lively theater in 1924, people dancing along to jazz, in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Leaving the festivities, walking in St. Nicholas Park, a couple is attacked by an unseen monster. The reader is thrust into the true reason for this book’s existence; prejudice, racism, and its normalization. Walker gives warning of the Great Evil, “No matter the name, the result is always the same – the corruption of human souls.”

Walker introduces the Sangerye family, in the midst of downing a Jinoo, dangerous demon-like creatures preying on people. Cullen, a young man trying his best with his training. Berg, a man of great strength and many words, attempting to train Cullen. Blink, the woman currently mixing roots who would rather be fighting against the Jinoo. Ma Etta, the wise matriarch with reservations about her granddaughter’s desires. This family knows the roots, the apparent source of abilities, better than anyone else. Characters are only fleshed out a bit since it’s the first issue. We still get a pretty good idea of the coming conflict though.

The Jinoo clearly represent hatred and racism in some form, but there’s a more intriguing aspect to the concept. The family heals Jinoo, transforming them back into normal people, they don’t destroy them. You don’t cut down the monster, you cure it. I’m really into this idea and can’t wait to see where Walker goes with it. The metaphor isn’t the only thing carrying the book though, there are two mysterious people seeking out the Sangerye family. Be they friend or foe, it’s unclear. Though it seems they’re on a power trip though, based on the dialogue. While that’s what we feel from Walker’s writing, the art also hints that there’s something sinister afoot.

The art team’s visuals are in a league of their own, evoking a sense of greatness in their work. Brown gives an utterly breathtaking atmosphere and distinction of character. His pencils create that historical feel Harlem deserves, conveying firey emotional strokes bringing characters and scenes to life. Renzi takes his colors from Spider-Gwen and dials it up to eleven. Working alongside Greene, these two pages from memorable thanks to Brown’s pencils and make them legendary.

In addition to the awesome art throughout the issue, the last page is one of the coolest I’ve ever seen in a comic book. Here we meet Ford, a member of the Sangerye family currently in Mississippi, at the moment downing KKK members. Brown shows Ford triumphantly saving a man from being hung by the noose in the middle of a foreboding forest. Ford’s gun still smoking, Renzi and Greene paint a purple sky contrasting against the dark leaves behind him. It’s an explosive scene that absolutely blew me away.

After the main story, the book prompts a discussion on race in a few different ways, all I recommend reading. Comments by the creators asking us to look inside ourselves at hate instead of pointing to a devil. A quote from Toni Morrison’s Beloved about the derogatory imagery and personality ascribed to Black people by White people. There’s even an essay by John Jennings about ways race, surrealism and horror have intersected, with him dubbing it Ethnogothic. Each piece is interesting, thought-provoking, and adds meta-meaning to the book. These are perfect caps to an already imaginative, brilliant, and inventive book.