Ash & Thorn #2: Fairies, Monsters, and Townhall Meetings

Yes, Ash & Thorn features a dominantly female creative team, including gorgeous covers from the iconic Jill Thompson. Yes, Ash & Thorn features a pair of old ladies at the primary protagonists subverting the standard superhero faire by decentralizing youth. While these two facts are in and of themselves good reasons alone to pick up Ash & Thorn, the most important reason to pick it up is because it’s just damn good. Mariah McCourt has perfectly paced this story thus far, creating a beautiful balance between pressing forward with the narrative and taking moments to flesh out this fully new universe and its sets of rules. Heavy exposition dumps have been the standard for rapid world-building in comics for so long that when they’re absent yet the world continues to rapidly build, it is incredibly noteworthy. Throw in this subtle yet scathing critique of empty political rhetoric (see below) and you’ve got the foundation for an extremely fresh and exciting series!

The artwork by Soo Lee is a perfect accompaniment to the written story and is clearly crafted with an equal amount of care. Part of the difficulty in selling Lottie as a superhero is her age, of course, but it is a fact that Lee seems accutely aware of. Subtle moments such as Lottie putting her fist in the small of her back lend a great deal of authenticity to the story as you can feel Lottie’s aches and pains as strongly as you can feel her righteous anger and determination.

As with most of the AHOY Comics work thus far, Ash & Thorn gets a “highly recommened reading” from me!