The best stories don’t just contain elements of truth, but they function as mirrors to reveal truth to the reader. By that metric alone, the entirety of Rodney Barnes’ Killadelphia to date has been an incredibly good story, but this week’s Killadelphia #25 goes beyond “incredibly good” to land among the best as it furthers the story of a supernatural battle for Philadelphia and, on a grander scale, humanity itself.
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This issue’s tale is told in multiple parts across the perspectives of a handful of its major players. We start with a conversation between the demon Corson and the trickster god Anansi as they try to negotiate an ending for this war that seems set to end in the utter destruction of humanity – something that would result in a major status quo change for both Corson and Anansi. We also get the perspective of Jim Sangster, a detective turned vampire who is on the streets and actually fighting in the war as he reflects on how this whole mess started, his life, and the nature of love and hope. We also check in with his son, waiting at home with his pregnant girlfriend and worrying, wishing for more time. Through these perspectives we see not just the battle, but what’s really at stake.
It’s an interesting narrative choice, but it works very well here because it gives perspective to a central truth: humanity may be beyond saving or, if not beyond saving, may have simply reached its expiration date. Corson and Anansi go back and forth on why they should stop this and save humanity, but Corson points out that humans are already doing the things he wants them to do without him having to lift a finger. We’ve lost our humanity, our empathy, our basic decency, and our hope. For Corson, this war is a chance to cleanse the palate, if you will, because humanity was a mistake. At the same time, through Sangster’s narrative, we see very much the same thing, that humanity has become cold and bitter, that it’s lost hope and empath. But even with that we see sparks of hope as he reveals that he’s learned to love even in all this darkness.
It’s an interesting and rather bleak bit of self-reflection for the reader, which is what Barnes does best, but it’s bolstered by incredible art from Jason Shawn Alexander which uses examples from real life and current events to drive home the idea that perhaps we’ve stopped being human to one another. Sure, the characters in Killadelphia are in a hell that is pure fiction, but the suggestion is that the real world is a hell of our own making. It’s a lot to consider, especially as delivered on the pages of a comic book – and it’s punctuated with a surprising and gut-wrenching ending that sees the death of a character who readers didn’t love much at the start of his journey, but who has grew from bitter and angry to the genuine heartbeat of this tale. It doesn’t bode well for forthcoming chapters, but it certainly gives the reader a lot to think about.
Killadelphia #25 is a truly outstanding issue and continues to deliver readers an incredible story on the page and plenty to consider after closing the comic book. The only slight misstep, if you can even call it that, is that the brief perspective of Sangster’s son probably isn’t necessary and serves to break the flow in what was otherwise an incredible beat for beat back and forth with the weight of, well, everything, in the balance. But even with that, this is truly an impressive master work of an issue that asks as many questions as it answers and begs the reader to examine themselves as much as the story on the page.
Published by Image Comics
On November 30, 2022
Written by Rodney Barnes
Art by Jason Shawn Alexander
Colors by Lee Loughridge
Letters by Marshall Dillon
Cover by Jason Shawn Alexander
