Across its first three issues, Edenwood has been a mighty brain beast to ensnare. Writer-artist Tony S. Daniel has clearly put in time and effort to build both a deeply familiar fantasy, and one with its own unique magic and life blood. Following along amid that endlessly building lore, though, has been a treat as much as it has been an occasional chore — a really engaging chance to delve deeply into this universe that’s alive and screaming in all the very best ways.
But as we enter the penultimate fourth issue, not only do things become a tad more clear, but they reach all new heights of emotionality and all-around force.
When we last left our hero Rion at the end of issue #3, he’d entered a Game Room, which is kind of what Luke went through in that Dark Side Cavern on Dagobah. At the same time, we also explored his tale from just a few years prior, when Rion and his badass mentor Bastille are making their way across the countryside.
What I like about this specific, time-spanning narrative is that it treats both past and present with equal power and authority; it’s all massively important in telling as many parts of the story as it expertly compares and contrasts certain moments and revelations to really draw out the narrative in some powerful and thoughtful ways. It’s another really great way that Daniel tries to extend the sheer limits of this world, and show us its bloody history as aligned with the movements of an increasingly compelling cast of characters.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
But perhaps the biggest accomplishment of this chapter deals with the revelations surrounding Rion, Bastille, their shared legacy, and what that all might really mean. I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s a decision that both links the characters even further together while it also adds in new layers to play around with the book’s big thematic end goals (including the nature of heroes and villains and key ideas about destiny and fate). We see the past, present, and future of this giant reveal (including some really chilling stuff with Rion’s parents and the Game Room), and in that way it connects back to the story proper to feel all the more important. It was a simple but powerful turn for this book, and proof about the drama empowering this grand, intricate world.
Sure, the big reveal could have felt a little cheap in almost any other story (perhaps because it’s “basic” enough), but Edenwood has done such a stellar job of building this world that it was a generally shocking moment. And more than just being extra juicy and dramatic, I think it gets us to better understand the vampire-demon-witch-human dynamic across this universe and just what this “war” has to say about the larger character study and moral dissection going on across this book.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
There’s a moment where, just as Rion learns of said big reveal, that we get this really exaggerated, wholly dramatic shot — where he gets plenty of space to have this profound moment of organic emoting. It felt like an especially powerful instance of this kind of singular humanity across a book that, while readily revealing new layers to everyone, often focuses visually on the dirty world and the sheer violence within these lands. This issue, however, felt like more of that blended and mixed with the sheer emotion of the actual story, and the end result was all the more effective in purveying everything with real power.
Aside from that aforementioned scene, we got a few other essential highlights. That includes a kind of transformation from the young Henrietta, Rion dispatching someone in a way that felt both really personal (and still quite stomach-churning and cool in its overall approach), and even a giant flesh monster that reminded you of this book’s powerful exploration of human nature. In these instances (and there were others too in a rather visually compelling issue), it felt like Daniel (alongside colorist Leonardo Paciarotti) had turned a corner. Yes, the body horror was still firmly on display, but it ebbed and flowed a bit in terms of depth and intensity to really let the emotion of these interactions and grand reveals really shine through.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
I wasn’t just grossed out (in a good way), or stoked about a sick fight scene — it really was the first clear instances where all of this visual madness only served to slide the knife in further after the story was already done stabbing us in the first place with its extra pointed interactions and sharp displays of emotionality. There’s an ending “fight” with Rion and a new character, and here both story and visuals interact in just such a way to gut us on a few different levels by layering the emotional with the understated force of, say, a certain glance or the way some blood might flow. The book’s continually delivered across issue #1-3, but it’s #4 where all of it struck even harder in our hearts and minds as the story builds to its bloody finale.
Issue #4 wasn’t just slightly “breezier” — in terms of its gentle approach in yielding some generally deep, unnerving insights and general gore — but it may have been my favorite thus far. A big part of that was maybe it was less about building lore for the sake of being interesting and thoughtful, but giving us similarly important info and context through a story with maximum efficiency as well as overall impact.
I have every confidence that issue #5 can bring it all home, but give issue #4 some added time and/or energy for that full exsanguination.
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