Jules Verne's The Lighthouse #5

Jules Verne’s The Lighthouse #5

Image Comics/Shadowline/Anomaly Productions 2021

Written by David Hine & Brian Haberlin

Illustrated by Brian Haberlin

Coloured by Geirrod Van Dyke

Lettered by Francis Takenaga

“SECRET WAR,” Part Five

In this final issue, Vasquez and Captain Kongre go head-to-head in a battle to decide the future of the human species. The Seraphim Suits are the ultimate battle armor, but wearing them means feeling the pain of every blow, and the pain only stops when one of them is dead.

This is one hell of a story. Let me also say that if I were Vasquez I’d put that damn Nanny Bot into the scrap heap post haste. Well let me not get ahead of myself here but still that might be how I end the book though because this bot is all kinds of cray cray and after it killed Davis. Still you gotta hand it to Vasquez because she is not having any of this from anyone right now and she’s pretty smart to boot. We see this in her actions and her decisions here and it is very nice to see her using her noggin in some creative ways. Plus that she remembers certain things and uses that against Kongre well it’s just very well portrayed.

I am a huge fan of 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 exceptionally 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. This continues to keep their personalities at the forefront so we continually see how they grow and evolve through the story. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and it creates some strong reactions within the reader.

I am digging how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. Right up until the end the layers within this story are explored in ways that continue to surprise the reader and they add this great 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 impeccably achieved.

The interiors here show just how impressive computer generated work can actually be. The imagery is spectacular, I mean the water on the first page alone is utterly gorgeous, and how we see the creativity and imagination is mind blowing. For me the backgrounds are phenomenally utilised because the space or asteroid as the backdrop is great and we do see a lot of the inside of the station or the suits they fight in. They work beautifully within the composition of the panels bringing 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 magnificent eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a sensational eye for how colour works.

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This book really takes the story to new places and it is really rather quite intense as well. This really made me think of a million different things and the fact that I am so totally invested and engaged in this story and the fact that my mind races through these thoughts is even more impressive to me. This has become so much more than the original source and the boys have created this entire new universe that begs to be explored. Plus I totally wanna see what happens to this Nanny Bot because if Vasquez doesn’t deactivate it then I will be hugely disappointed. The writing here is exceptional and the characterisation is smart and intense and the way that these mind blowingly brilliant interiors bring it to life is just spectacularly well done.