REVIEW: Antarctica #5 (of 5)

As the team prepares to make a jump back to their home. Hannah must ally herself with the variant Dr.Curtis, an alternate version of herself to escape a new threat. An even more dangerous version of the Hannah character has appeared and she is hellbent on making the team stay in this dimension. Bullets are shot, people are dead and we learn that a major player in Hannah’s life will make the biggest sacrifice to help them continue their search for their father. Wonderful art, fantastic story pacing, and tremendous lettering combine to bring us the latest installment in the Antarctica saga.

While this issue is not as action-packed as the previous one, we still get some wonderful moments of pure dramatic impact that hit us just as hard as the kick in the nuts from the last issue. Hannah and Dr. Curtis make amends and realize that they will have to work together to survive and escape from the new Hannah “badass” variant. Speaking of amends, in an almost “are the writers reading my mind” moment, I must amend my previous issue with the tech-savvy character’s name not being mentioned because right out of the gate we have a panel that says “Sorry, I didn’t ask your name…” and we come to learn that their name is “Roisin”. If you read my last review you might’ve known that I went on a whole tangent about how the character’s name wasn’t mentioned at all, and yet they had one of the best plotlines in the story up to that point. Turns out we just needed to read this issue to learn their name. On the subject of learning about characters, in this issue, we learn that Hannah has an older sister who played a major role not only in her original life back in her home dimension but will play an even bigger role in this dimension as they continue searching for their father. The two variants now working as a team of sisters have only one goal in sight and that is to find their father and get the answers they so desperately need.

This issue was a bit slower to read because it introduced a few new characters that needed to be explained. Such as the Hannahs’ sister, as well as a badass Hannah version that seems to be very much from the future and ready to kill anything and anyone that might get in her way. We got treated to a very interesting flashback that set up the introduction of Hannah’s sister quite wonderfully by tying a moment in the past with the present moment, which made the whole situation that much more emotional. There was also a truly wonderful metaphorical representation of bad influences in a person’s life with the use of tiny little people next to a passed-out Hannah. These little people almost look like your typical bottles thrown around a drunk person and in my opinion, serve as a representation that during that time Hannah was plagued by vices and surrounded by bad influences. It was a wonderful use of a visual metaphor that I hadn’t seen done in this comic before and only serves to show how much the writer and the artists are in synch on this comic. Moreover, the panel layouts are really interesting in this issue, especially in two instances that for me were the highlights of volume. We get a full-page illustration of a shoot-out between the OG soldiers and the Future soldiers, and it’s all told in 6 cracked panels that mimic the way that the bullets are being shot into the glass visors of the soldiers as if we’re getting back and forth pov shots of the shooters killing each other. The other page that piqued my interest involved Roisin being saved by their dimensional original version. In 3 fast-paced panels, Roisin’s OG version shoots a soldier in the head, shoots another one in the leg, and then in a “BANG” of a moment shoots that other soldier straight through the visor. I also loved how in that last panel you can see that she’s not really into this sort of killing as she grimaces away from the gun as blood and vile shoots from the top of the head of her victim. In this moment it feels clear that she truly appreciates meeting Roisin and she will stop at nothing to protect them.

The art has grown on me, to be honest. I still do not like a few of the facial choices but there are some scenes and poses that are simply stellar and it is easy to get over the issues I might’ve had before. However, there are also a few scenes here and there (like the mouth of Hannah’s sister as she asks for her “final” request) that are still just as jarring as seeing a little girl with dried-out, cracked, ashy lips for no reason. Willi Roberts is a fantastic artist and they nailed a style for this comic that works well, it’s just that I don’t like the way he can sometimes over-detail faces to the point of making them seem grotesque and out of place. That being said, in terms of paneling, posing, coloring, and overall environmental design this comic is spectacular. Speaking of environmental design, I don’t think I’ve seen a single flat background in these comics at all. Every panel contains either a full background shot, or enough of a background to show you exactly where the characters are in a specific room, and I think that’s awesome. To me, it shows that you’re not cutting corners and that you are skilled at what you are doing. Backgrounds are hard, so when an artist chooses to include them in all of their panels, that is something to be applauded. The colors continue to be fantastic but a special mention has to be made to the color palette chosen for when the team finally makes the dimensional jump. Once the Hannahs have arrived we are treated to a vision of heaven through what looks like a sunrise in Antarctica. Betweens hues of oranges, light blues, and white snow I am transported back to my trip to Tromsø and I am reminded of how beautiful the world looks in the wee hours of the morning, and how that beauty is only amplified by the falling of snow. These last 3 pages are pure magic, thanks to that beautiful color palette.

Lettering continues to be just wonderful, and while we do not get as many sound fx as the previous issue (because this is a more drama-oriented installment) we are still treated to some great narration boxes, and a few Bangs, Booms, and Clicks in the brush style we’ve grown to known and love from the Antarctica series.

I liked this issue a lot. There were a few twists and turns that I was not expecting at all, and I did my best to not ruin the backstory of Hannah’s sister, or what she is meant to do in this issue, but I gotta say that those few pages were some of my favorites out of the whole bunch and I loved both the flashback, as well as how it all concluded. The cliffhanger was exciting as well and I am truly interested to see what happens now that we move into new territory and the team has finally made the jump back home… or did they?

This is a great time-traveling/dimensional travel story. It is filled with wonderful action sequences, fantastic character moments, and a deep look at the mind of a person who has lost their father for no reason at all and can’t truly grieve and move on until she finds out the truth of his mysterious disappearance. When I first started reading this comic, I thought it was going to be a straightforward “my dad was eaten by a polar bear” at the North Pole, but what I’ve been presented with so far has been nothing short of amazing and innovative storytelling. If you like fantastic action sequences, great character designs and purposeful storytelling then this comic could be for you.

Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 4.5 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars

Overall: 5 Stars

Written by: Simon Birks
Art by: Willi Roberts
Lettering by: Lyndon White
Cover art by:  Willi Roberts
Variant Covers by: Majory Yokomizo
Published by: Top Cow

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”