Tartarus #5: A Full Moon Rising

From its first page, Tartarus’ fifth issue moves at a fast clip as conflict escalates on all
fronts. With Mogen preparing to face Gloh, Ilzn and Sevno infiltrating the Djinn, and
Tilde plagued by a mysterious dream and confronting Kleeph, it’s a busy issue. As Tilde
confronts Kleeph, she learns – along with the audience – that there is once again much
more going on than meets the eye. And there is a lot already going on.

As the first arc comes to its climax, the pace seems to pull readers further into
Christmas’ labyrinthine narrative. Regrettably, this can occasionally lead to the sensation
of being lost and needing to reorient oneself. Tartarus is an unquestionably text-heavy
book, and the depth of its universe necessitates it. Yet, this issue can feel exposition-
heavy, especially in the amount of time its opening sequence seeks to cover, and at other
points like it needs more exposition, which is one of the difficulties of Tartarus’ extensive
world-building that occasionally moves from rich to dense. Compared with its double-
stuffed first issue, Tartarus #5 seems to attempt covering an equal amount of story and
background with only half the space.

The mythological and arcane side of Tartarus is more difficult to ignore than ever – not
that one would want to. From the introduction of minor characters like a cyclops and
minotaur, to the narrative role of tarot (and a card as always on the back cover), to the
imagery of the eclipse, it’s saturated with it. This mystic slant places Tartarus on the
softer side of science fiction, and in a delightful way.

Eclipses, narratively, are often associated with times of rapid internal and external
change, which is certainly true for Tartarus #5. They can also show the diminishing of
one role over another, as seems true between the powers waging war on Tartarus, but it
is luckily not the case for Tartarus’ creative team, with Christmas’ storytelling and Cole’s
artistic chops always on equal footing with one another.

With Andrew Krahnke and Hilary Jenkins taking over from Jack T. Cole starting at
Tartarus’ sixth issue, it’s a pleasure to say that Cole’s work on this issue is exquisite.
Details like the framing of pages with the lunar cycle, for example, serves the early pages
both aesthetically and thematically. Anatomically speaking, this issue doesn’t suffer from
any of the perspective or foreshortening problems of previous issues, faces remain
consistent, and characters are always recognizable. Action sequences are dynamic and
scenes so immense it often seems a wonder they fit on the page. As always, Cole’s color
palettes are wonderfully planned, often functioning to distinguish storylines, and pages
darkening as the eclipse nears.

The cover draws the reader in to Tilde’s cryptic confrontation with the oracular Kleeph,
surrounded by yet more mystic imagery of the zodiac and labyrinth. The back cover,
depicting the High Priestess tarot card, is once again a beautiful work by Cole which is
often associated with the intuitive, unconscious, and spiritual, but also with one’s
repressed feelings, all undoubtedly reflective of the issue’s narrative focus on Tilde’s
journey.