Two Moons #5

Two Moons #5

Image Comics 2021

Written by John Arcudi

Illustrated by Valerio Giangiordano

Coloured by Bill Crabtree

Lettered by Michael Heisler

"THE IRON NOOSE," Part Five

The gates of hell have burst open, and chaos reigns as Virgil and Frances scramble to save lives and souls.

There are times during this story that this was a much different time to live in and that Miss Francis seeing Virgil fight like a man possessed frightened her so, so much so that she referred to him as a savage something that is due to the colour of his skin. This is the time of the Civil War after all and that a Native American fights for the North is monumental achievement anyway and the trial well they all know now that it’s been a farce. What this story so far has done for me is that it makes me see what’s beyond the page and engages my mind in some wonderfully vibrant and different ways. I think of who Virgil is and who he’s meant to be and that this part of his life is a journey he was destined to take in order to become the man he is destined to be and it’s stuff like that which we can apply to the obstacles that we find in our way in our own lives as well.

I am a huge fan of 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 exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character development as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter is really rather magnificent. The pacing that we see is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it pulls us deeper and deeper in and leaves us breathless as we wonder if this is truly the end of the threat.

I greatly appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen right up to the last page. The layers contain the plot twists as well as the great bits of characterisation and whether they work with the main arc or simply swirl around it it manages to add this fantastic depth 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 extremely well.

The interiors here are absolutely amazingly gorgeous to see. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail work is mindbogglingly well rendered. The creativity and imagination that is on display is powerfully rendered in these horrific nightmarish creatures that we see. That we see backgrounds utilised as we do makes me a very happy camper and to see 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 book is beautifully done. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masters 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 superb eye for how colour works and how to maximise its affects.

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I have no idea where this is going to go from here but I can tell you with a hundred percent certainty that I cannot to find out. This is one of the most unexpected surprise hits of the year and I doubt that anything could come along to really change that. With outrageously good writing and superb characterisation alongside these mindbogglingly brilliant interiors this is one of my top picks for best new series of the year.