Compass #3

Compass #3

Image Comics 2021

Written by Robert Mackenzie & David Walker

Illustrated by Justin Greenwood

Coloured by Daniela Miwa

Lettered by Simon Bowland

Evil pursues Shahidah El-Amin to the ends of the Earth…and miles beneath it. The quest for the Cauldron of Eternal Life takes Shahi—and her one-time sister-in-arms, now enemy, Ling Hua—deep within the darkest caverns of Christendom, where the treasure hunters face monsters, visions, and the legions of the dead!

This series continues to impress me. As our young heroine tries to investigate what she’s gotten herself into and tries to outsmart Ling we see this hectic and utterly delightful story begin to take sharper shape. I really like the direction that the boys take this issue in. While we’ve been seeing both girls and their current predicaments seeming to parallel each other where they go and how they are so similar becomes even more crystal clear as the issue progresses. That these girls are as physical in their approach as they are cerebral and it adds some really great oomph to the story.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continue to bring their personalities out. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and the twists & turns along the way keep us glued to the pages.

The way that we see this being structured and how we see the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. It is within these layers, or avenues, that we see being explored with this insane characterisation adds so much great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. Also the various factions that surround these two young women are given a chance to be understood more and this adds that little bit extra to the book that helps move the story forward. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved extremely well.

The interiors here have a very comic book style to them and then there’s also a very distinct horror style mixed into this as well. So by blending the two styles a new kind of imagery is created and it really has this wonderful aesthetic too. This new blended style allows for some incredibly interesting attention to detail throughout what we see. The linework is great and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised is well rendered. The way we see backgrounds, which could be better but again that’s me, being utilised and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is exceptionally well rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of colour.

​

This is a surprise hit for me. It is endearing and charming and has all this unexpected charisma to the book. There are moments where the girls defy stereotypes and prove that no matter where you come from you can be and do whatever you want to do. This is a fantastic message too and it doesn’t matter if you are a boy or girl, young or old, it just sends such a positive outlook towards life. With some spectacular writing and intelligent characterisation surrounded by these great interiors make this a true gem of a find.