Rick Remender is known for long-form comic stories that may take a few issues to reveal their story fully, as is the case with Napalm Lullaby. The setting is a sci-fi future where two children named Sam and Sarah have superpowers, yet they live under the thumb of a religious cult-like government. They discovered their father is the God the cult built itself around and must stop it. It’s a frightening future, and it’s all too easy to see where our own world took a turn for such an utterly bleak future.
Jumping ahead some years, the siblings have discovered the truth about their father, The Magnificent Leader, but due to trauma and quick thinking, all of reality is being augmented. In the last issue, Sam comes to realize that by the end of the issue, he’s trapped in an augmented reality due to his sister Sarah. Her death may be the only answer, but as Napalm Lullaby #8 proves, he must wake up enough to do something about it.
Napalm Lullaby #8 opens with Sam in a dingy office, only to discover a Blade Runner-esque outdoors and a hankering for sweets. The captions are of Sarah’s voice, who details how her powers have made her a pariah. They detail how to defeat a heretic and seem to flutter like actual thoughts. It makes it hard to pin her down, but they read in a realistic sort of way. Soon, Sam is getting his sweet tooth on right before an assassin comes after him.
But is this really reality?
Credit: Image
To say this issue is trippy is an understatement. Like Inception, there are dreams (or are they realities?!) within dreams. What is real is unclear, while Sam is being influenced to escape the realities and, as was told to him in the last issue, kill his sister. By making things hard to pin down, Remender and Bengal make reality-altering superpowers almost too real as we try to understand who is bad and what is real.
Complicating things is the Janitor, a character similar to Supergirl in powers but as evil as they come. At least, I thought she was evil as her actions dictated in previous issues. Here, she’s a good guy trying to get Sam to wake up. It’s unclear if we should trust her due to Sarah’s hijacking of reality or if she’s got motives that Sam will go along with and regret later. Similar to the reality shifting, I’m not sure what is happening, but the ride is entertaining enough.
The cliffhanger certainly offers more questions than answers, like what all the babies in glass globes are about. Bengal really stretches the imagination with the cliffhanger page with a great sense of scale here, along with outdoor scenes earlier in the issue. When reality warps at one point, Bengal’s backgrounds get all wavy, with a gross blood explosion worth checking out.
Napalm Lullaby #8 is a deeply surreal and visually captivating issue that revels in its reality-bending narrative. While its ambitious storytelling may leave readers grasping for clarity, the evocative art, thematic depth, and tantalizing mysteries make it a compelling read for fans of thought-provoking sci-fi. It’s a chaotic yet fascinating chapter in Rick Remender’s long-form storytelling, leaving readers eager for answers but satisfied with the ride.
You must be logged in to post a comment.