Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Sanctuary #7
SLG
Coughlin, Fong & Bambas
Sanctuary delivers a heart racing read for its seventh issue. The comic book brings the conflict between the humans and animals to a boil as the comic book sets up the confrontation in the first few pages then ramps up the pace straight through to the end. It's a very good read and is backed up with some powerful and inspiring visuals. This is a book to check out.
The bulk of the issue is spent in spider cave as the humans are looking to level everything in their path in the cave. They do plan to bring back any animals that they might find in their way. The spiders take this as an invasion and attempt to stop the humans. However, the cave has a couple of fleeing animals that get caught in the crossfire.
The pace is riveting during the cave scenes. The book just creates a lot of tension once its been established just what the humans plan to do. While the characters trapped in the cave are unaware of the exact nature of their danger they are fully aware of the fact that they are in a cave with limited options. It's a compelling sequence.
The book has other plots at work, particularly with the scientists. The scientists are sympathetic to the animals (some more than others) and the book explores some of their feelings in depth in this issue. The sequence where they weigh the options of killing animals to prove the point that killing animals is wrong is executed (no pun intended) perfectly.
While this issue is accessible to the new reader I do recommend re-reading the prior six issues at least to get some grounding on the characters. Again, it's not essential to enjoy this issue though.
The artwork is stellar not only in the pencils but in the page layouts. The comic is presented in black and white and the details really support that decision. You won't find a more crisp looking comic book. The panel layout for the sequence for the scent-memory sequence is terrific and is something out of the creative bag of tricks you might find in a book like Chew. Overall the comic presents some very good dramatic pictures and the chase in the cave is only one of the examples of where the visuals excel in this book.
Sanctuary isn't your typical story about man and animal. The trust line is so blurry it really is the driver in the comic book. As the reader you know which humans the animals can trust but they don't and it makes the read more suspenseful. I am enjoying this series and this is another good issue. I urge you to seek it out. You can pick this up at amazon or slgcomic.com for paper copies or over on comixology for digital ones.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
