The first issue of Sleepy Hollow: Witches of the Western Wood started to explore the events that led Sarah Archer to take up black magic and the identity of Mary Van Tassel, but it also showed that she was a child who bore witness to the darkness in her mother’s heart and merely sought to protect her younger sister from said darkness. But what happens when Sarah grows up? Sleepy Hollow: Witches of the Western Wood #2 leaps forward in time to explore adult Sarah’s life, and the events that caused her to sink further into black magic.
From the very beginning of Witches of the Western Wood #2, Delilah S. Dawson draws a line between Sarah and her sister Mary. While Mary is a bit more naive about the world yet willing to help others with her white magic, Sarah is more than willing to take vengeance on those who wronged her. I’ve always felt that the line between “hero” and “villain” is defined by the choices one makes; do you protect others or harm them? Do you rise about darkness or get dragged down into it? Sarah made her choice, and it’s one that will define her entire life.
There’s also the things that drive Sarah deeper into darkness, particularly the affair she carries on with the son of Sleepy Hollow’s blacksmith, Thomas. As she explains in her narration, she’s grown up and has a woman’s desires…and a woman’s wrath, as she eventually catches Thomas in the arms of someone else. Thankfully, Dawson doesn’t just boil Sarah’s turn to darkness down to “a woman scorned”, but also her deep anger at being spurned by the people of Sleepy Hollow. We all want to belong, and being denied that belonging could drive someone to do terrible things.
Another issue of Witches of the Western Wood means more excellent art from Jose Jaro. Jaro doesn’t shy away from the fact that Sarah and Mary are starting to resemble their mother as they grow older, though he creates subtle differences in their appearance. While Mary’s hair is more straightened and her clothing lighter, Sarah’s hair tends to be more messy and her clothing darker. Xenon Honchar’s color art also makes Sarah a stand out no matter what time period the book is taking place in, thanks to her skin being so pale it’s almost translucent and her piercing emerald gaze.
Jaro also doesn’t shy away from some of the more horrific effects of black magic. A key moment comes when Sarah, intending to master a spell to resurrect the dead, winds up snapping the neck of a fox that Mary cares for. She does eventually resurrect said fox…but it’s a snarling, rabid beast whose neck is forever at an odd angle and whose eyes are blood red with rage. In a single image, Sleepy Hollow: Witches of the Western Wood #2 captures the sheer terror of black magic.
Sleepy Hollow: Witches of the Western Wood #2 continues to expand on Sarah Archer’s path to darkness, and reminds us all that the line between good and evil is a choice. Judging from how this issue ends, Sarah made the choice that will eventually doom her.
