Taarna The Cosmic Gardener

Taarna The Cosmic Gardener

Heavy Metal Elements 2021

Written by David Erwin & Matthew Medney

Illustrated by Butch Guice

Coloured by Chris Sotomayor

Lettered by Marshall Dillon

13.8 billion years ago, the universe burst into existence. Each universe has one guardian that is responsible for protecting and nurturing its growth and health. From the death of the last Taarakian and a collapsed universe, Taarna was born. Heavy Metal’s flagship character from the animated film returns in a new series of cosmic mystery and battles throughout the multiverse. Originally published in Heavy Metal Magazine, Taarna: The Cosmic Gardener follows Taarna’s journey from her past into a bold new direction.

If you’ve never read an issue of Taarna then this is the perfect issue for you to give her a go. This will introduce you to the character, her beginnings and how she has come to be where she is now. Even if you are familiar with her this is still a great way to get to know about her and garner a greater appreciation for you. I love this for a myriad of reasons and among them is that we are learning alongside Taarna herself as she finds her way in her new life and she is the guardian of an entire galaxy, but is adamant she isn’t a goddess.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development 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 as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really does wonders in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story, the characters and the world centred here is hypnotising.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow. This is one of the aspects that I really like is how we see the avenues open up and some of those are explored with others aren’t but they all add this wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well. I really like how we see these events unfold and how the overall flow just makes this such a fantastic read.

The interiors here are absolutely stunning. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail work is astonishingly well rendered. How we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments while also working within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the story in some magnificent ways. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a phenomenal understanding of how colour works.

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I love Taarna, she’s unapologetically who she is. She can be naked or wearing something barely there and she’s nonplussed because she’s confident in herself, her abilities and more so this kind of self-confidence is sexy. That this isn’t sexualised is phenomenal and it just goes to show that sexy doesn’t have to be sexual or creepy in some hormonal teenage boy way. As a gay man that I love Taarna is fantastic because she’s just awesome in every way, shape and form. This is how we love our women, unapologetically badass. So with some amazingly strong writing and superb characterisation wrapped up in these brilliant interiors and you’ve one of today’s most unsung heroine in comics.