Scott Snyder and Jock’s “Wytches” is back with a second issue and I’ll go ahead and call it eyebrow raising and eye err…neck-eye opening.
WRITTEN BY: Scott Snyder
ART BY: Jock
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: November 12, 2014
Reviewed by Nick Brehmer
We pick up just after the final events of issue #1. Sailor’s been attacked by some revenant creature, which she suspects is Annie, sent back by the wytches for reasons unknown. Her parents can sense the supernatural nature of the happening surrounding their daughter. Her father’s concern grows when the biopsy of Sailor’s neck would yields ancient results, and Sailor’s mother is confronted with the bizarre when a patient of hers awakens from a coma with knowledge of the wytches.
The whole concept of pledging is definitely a key interest point for this series. I know in my previous review for issue #1, I may have been a little harsh on my apprehensions regarding Snyder’s reworking of such a classic archetype. But the narrative motivations behind the pledge are very much align with the classic witch. In one word? Suspicion.
The witch trials are so fascinating due to the mass paranoia and suspicion regarding witchcraft and the defilement of community. This is very much present in “Wytches”. There’s an added level of unease with the idea of pledging as sacrifice. That one can choose an individual to be handed over to these horrific woodland creatures make the suspicion level two-fold – who has been pledged and who has done the pledging? Was Annie pledged? Has Sailor been pledged? How is the community involved? Who’s this sandman character and how does he relate? Questions, questions…
The concerns I raised in my last review are still bouncing around my mind as I flip through issue #2. In addition, with the encounter with the wytches themselves in the flesh, things are also progressing a little quickly for my tastes. I wish there was more atmospheric tension. Given the above mentioned relationship between classic witches and community, my hope is that Snyder explores this more in upcoming issues. It’s touched upon a little with her classmate interactions, but I would love to see something more built between Sailor and her new town after fleeing from the previous one due to Annie’s disappearance.
Also as mentioned in my previous issue, I will say that the artwork that Jock’s provided for this series is gripping. The wytches that he’s visualized are indeed creepy as hell.
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A product of the harsh lands of Northern Ontario, Nick Brehmer is in fact a sensitive flower currently blooming in the GTA. He spends his downtime wishing he was British. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @nicholasbrehmer