Saturday, April 27, 2024

Saturday Splash Page #122

 
"Ouch," in Stellar #5, by Joseph Keatinge (writer), Bret Blevins (artist/colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer)

A 6-issue mini-series from 2018 focused on Stellar, a child turned into a super-soldier of incredible power, at some point long after that. It's hard to say how long, as time is for some reason inconsistent in her universe, as a result of the war she was modified to fight.

The war may be over, but the other products of the project are hunting her, though the reasons for that are unclear. They attack her on sight, but also want her help dealing with the member of the project deemed most dangerous, a man called Zenith. That's him getting some cheap dental work. He'll heal up in a few panels.

A lot of things in this story are malleable. Time, the character's motivations, the war itself. The other members attacking Stellar, then expecting her to help them fight Zenith. The war is supposedly between their universe and another one, but when Stellar and Zenith supposedly reach that universe (in the back half of the mini-series), there's no sign of the war. 

So the reasons change, the causes change, but the players don't change, not really. Zenith may be free of whoever created him, but that just means he's building war-bots and portals to other universes for his own ends now. Are those good ends? Another possibly malleable thing. There is a version of Stellar in that other universe, minus any powers, but plus a daughter (who also looks exactly like a younger Stellar.) Zenith abducts them and creates a family, for decades. He plays the role of family man. Sweater vest, spectacles, all polite and contrite when his wife (the older alt-Stellar), makes apologies. Yet as soon as it's he and Stellar in his garage, here come the monologues, the sneering, the robots.

Stellar had, after the way, worked for an orphanage/temple place, helping however she could, mostly by collecting bounties. But in that other universe, where there is no fighting, where she goes literal decades without seeing Zenith, she does nothing. She lives in a crappy apartment, she takes no lover, forms no family. She doesn't age, but Blevins makes her look old and tired. Stringy hair, sunken cheeks. No spark, no crackling energy or glowing eyes. Until she meets Zenith and she has to fight. 

As soon as he appears, all her focus is on destroying him. She had seemingly been content to avoid him and everyone else in her old universe, but now, all she can think about is finding and killing him. She isn't happy, but she's more expressive, more animated. Moves with a purpose, shoulders back, fists clenched, rather than wandering aimlessly, head down, shoulders slumped.

There was some backmatter after the final issue that hinted there might be more to come, but to my knowledge, it hasn't happened yet.

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