Sparrowhawk #3

Boom! Studios

Writer: Delilah S. Dawson

Artist: Matias Basla

Sparrowhawk is a whimsical fantasy comic that combines stables of tabletop gaming with deep ethical and societal questions. Artemisia is pulled into the fey world in which might is right, and she must kill or be killed. As she defeats monsters she grows in power.

Story:

This issue picks up right where #2 left off. The “Wild Hunt” is in pursuit of a large and terrible looking monster. Artemisia must face the hunt but is not yet powerful enough. There is some insanely crafty world building by the other in this issue by way of story, and the outcome of the issue is at once earned and sad. Everything comes at a cost in this comic, and with only two more issues in line, this reader is curious to see how it wraps up.

Character:

The characters are the most memorable part of this comic. Dawson has a knack for building empathy between readers and characters who are in ethically ambiguous situations. While the pacifistic Faerie, Warren, does, at times, feel like a mouthpiece for philosophizing on the nature of our own society, the comic wouldn’t be the same without him. Does one do a bad deed to bring about a good result? Do the ends justify the means, or are the consequences of our actions so complex that we can never know for sure what is right, what is wrong? The characters and dialogue in this piece shine, and where they go from here is anyone’s guess.

Art:

I remember being a little put off by the art in previous issues, but now that I’ve burrowed deeper into this piece, I find it quite fitting. The RPG style of storytelling used in this comic lends itself well to the cartoonish gloom and often putrid colors used for tone setting. One frame, in particular, stands out, a troop of skeletal horsemen with bubblegum pink wisps rising from them, a bright yellow background that clashes with their dull tones show the contrast this piece makes: not only the contrast of colors but the contrast of actions, right vs wrong, good vs evil.

What To Look For:

Since there are two more issues in this line, I’m hoping for some more appearances of the Faerie Queen. After all, when Artemisia was transported to the faerie world, the queen broke into the human world. Expect some repercussions to come of this. I’ll also be on the lookout for a central “big bad” Artemisia doesn’t kill with relative ease. Of course, the true peril she is in isn’t the monsters, it’s the ethical cost she pays for her actions, but still–the plot, and Artemisia herself, must come to a breaking point, and my guess is that will be near the end of #4, next month. Until then, read on.