Rachel Rising Mystery: What's In the Box?

While the high action and body count slowed down and took a breather in this month's issue of Terry Moore's Rachel Rising, it was far from an uneventful book. In fact, arguably the most strange and fascinating event yet took place this month--and that's in a series that's been full of strange and fascinating events since its launch. SPOILERS AHEAD. In fact, if you haven't read the issue yet, you should run over to ComiXology and grab it now. We'll wait. In Rachel Rising #14, out yesterday, Terry Moore gave Rachel a moment of quiet contemplation, in which we saw a bit of our heroine's previous lifetime. She can't remember it, as the rest of her contemporaries seem able to do, and so it's not immediately clear whether this vision was to the readers only, whether it was a revelation to Rachel or whether it occurred to her as a fantasy.

What was clear to longtime readers of Moore's work is that there is a connection between Rachel and Julie, the lead character in Moore's last series, Echo. That connection? A mysterious box, found in Julie's home early in the series (seen at right) and never actually explained. "You're going to be more fun than I thought," Ivy (a clandestine agent) said of Julie upon seeing the contents of the box adorned with the mysterious markings. A box very much like the one that Rachel saw her past self bury in a field under a grouping of trees. What role will it play in the story? it's very difficult to say. When recently asked whether he would ever reveal the contents of the box by a fan, Moore answered that, if he ever made a sequel to Echo, he would reveal the box's contents. It's difficult to imagine that the way it's depicted in Rachel Rising, the contents of the box won't come into play at some later date. It also begs the question: will we see characters from Echo popping up in Rachel Rising?

The most obvious choices are Kasey and Tambi, carryovers from Strangers in Paradise who appeared in the final few issues of Echo. The pair are often up to some manner of globetrotting mischief or another that might land them in Manson. Of course, that also makes sense because, with the twentieth anniversary of Strangers in Paradise this year, Moore promised fans at San Diego Comic Con International that members of the Strangers in Paradise cast would be appearing in Rachel Rising. Look out for our standing Rachel Rising commentary column, of course, as soon as Terry can get around to answering our questions. And one of which, as Brad Pitt might ask for us, of course has to be "What's in the box?". Somehow we doubt he'll tell.