Wednesday Comics: Back to the Spire

The Spire #3-4 (September and October 2015); Written by Simon Spurrier, Art by Jeff Stokely

It's been a while since I reviewed The Spire, but you can read the about the previous issues here. Now the Tithebound, various tribes of nonhuman "skews", arrive at the Spire to pledge their allegiance once again. The Medusi (the people of our heroine, Shå) break protocol by escaping that they be allowed to take the fugitive Soulbreaker with them. That's complicated by the fact nobody knows what the Soulbreaker looks like.

Meanwhile, Shå is trying to catch a serial killer who's stalking the Spire--and seems to be able to get into locked rooms and disappear swiftly. A dagger with an unusual symbol is left at one of the crime scenes.

We also find out that Shå's past is a bit mysterious. She awakened in Spire with a note telling her what she was and that she needed to hide or be killed. She also has been an adult in the city for a long time. For over 30 years, in fact.

A cloaked and masked figure attacks the head of the medusi contingent. Shå arrives too late to stop it, but soon enough to be mistaken for the Soulbreaker by the other medusi.

After a brief skirmish, the mistake is rectified. The medusi tell her they're about to be sent on a mission--a suicide mission--by the Baroness and they ask her to intercede.

Shå has her own problems with the royals. The Baroness publicly chastises her for not catching the murderer yet. She's also in the doghouse with the Baroness' sister-- Shå's girlfriend--because she found out Shå never told her age.

The whole Spire has got bigger problems. The Zaorim are massing for war.

Wednesday Comics: The Spire #2

The Spire #2 (August 2015); Written by Simon Spurrier, Art by Jeff Stokely

The Spire is a tower city in the middle of a desert. A desert (we discover in this issue) that has air toxic to humans, at least with repeated exposure. This also ties in to the origin of "the Skews," the strange, near humans that suffer prejudice within the city. They were apparently made in the "Antiki" times to live places and do things humans could not. Watch Commander Shå is a Skew. She's also trying to solve a series of murders.

There's a serial killer in the lower city who has ties to the high class upper part of town, according to a couple of tracker animals. Then there's an apparent attempt on the life of the Marchioness, the mother of the newly ascended Baroness that instead takes the life of her nursemaid.

Meanwhile, religious zealots in the deserts are massing, and a messanger sent at the death of the old baron is returning to the Spire with a mysterious group of Sculpted (the polite name for Skews).

I suspect all these things tie in together and to the history of the Spire. Still a lot of worldbuilding in this issue (which isn't bad, but any means) but the mystery seems to be picking up steam, even if the main characters don't seem to know it yet.

Wednesday Comics: The Spire

The Spire #1(July 2015); Written by Simon Spurrier, Art by Jeff Stokely

The Spire is a massive tower city in the middle of the desert of the Nothinglands. It's plagued by ethnic and class divisions and enemies on the outside. It's Baron has just passed away, and on the eve of it's new Baroness's coronation, a series of strange and grisly murders has occurred. There just may be a conspiracy afoot, and Commader Shå of the Watch, a "skew" (a slur for a nonhuman), has to deal with the prejudices of the people around her while trying to catch the murder and reveal the bigger picture.

The Spire (at least the first issue) has a bit of a manga/anime feel (mostly through the art) but the world itself, particularly the ramshackle Spire, its faux-Shakespearean street punks (antiki), and various nonhuman species, reminds me most of works of the New Weird, particularly Mieville's Bas-Lag novels and the Deepgate Codex by Alan Campbell.

It's only the first issue, so it's hard to say where it's going, but it seems like it's going to be well worth finding out.