By: Rachel Freeman
Victor LaValle’s Destroyer is published by BOOM! Studios. It is written by Victor LaValle with art by Dietrich Smith.
Have you been reading this comic? If you haven’t, you need to stop what you’re doing and go read it. To give you a quick plot description, the last descendant of Frankenstein loses her son, who was only 12, to a police shooting, decides to use science to pursue her own form of justice – bringing Akai back to life. Meanwhile, the original monster created by her ancestor, who was living in peaceful solitude in the Arctic, begins his quest to destroy humanity after he witnesses a group of humans kill a mother whale and her calf. Dr. Baker is the only one who can stop this monster, but Dr. Baker doesn’t care about the rest of humanity, she cares about her son.
Alright. Now you’re all caught up. Let’s talk about the latest issue of this fantastic story. In this issue, we are given two very important breakthroughs of sorts. On Dr. Baker’s side, we are given a history of her life just before, during, and following her pregnancy. I think my favorite line in this issue from Dr. Baker is when she tells the George and Percy, “But no matter what, I can’t abide by the idea that you’ll think I’m some mad black woman who lost control”. Dr. Baker respects herself. She is a an intelligent and ambitious woman, who operates with logic and reason. And she isn’t about to let these two white men write her off as just some crazy black woman. There’s a lot of power in that statement. Despite the ancestral connection to Frankenstein, despite how crazy it may sound that she brought her son back to life, she is not even remotely crazy. The second important breakthrough is from the Monster. He has been killing people ever since he got on the boat, ever since he stepped foot on the shore, he has had no compassion towards humans – even innocent children, even those who tried to help him – he has only shown it towards animals. However, in his rage of seeing pigs trapped in cages, he punches a wall…bringing the building down and killing them all. As he looks at his hands, you can see just how devastated he is, just how much he hates the fact that he was even created only to cause such horror. It’s all so emotional and relevant to current events.
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5 / 10
While I absolutely loved the character insight, ultimately not a whole lot happened until the last couple pages of the issue. And the events that did happen just left me going, “WHY IS THIS THE LAST PAGE?!” which, I mean, is a good thing, but it just ends. Just, hey, here’s this epic climax that’s about to start…just kidding, you have to wait a month. This is a minuscule complaint compared to the awesome praise this comic deserves.
Make sure you pick up a copy from your local comic store!
Happy reading!
