This is a continuation of a previous review on the Saints and Sinners comic from Rippaverse. The second story is another introduction to a new character in a short story form Called a Cross to Bear by Jay David.

A Cross to Bear begins with a very well-known story trope where the reader is dropped in on the main character who wakes up in a seemingly random place and has lost his memory. Although this opening has been used countless times before, I thought it worked well in this case because of the limitation of page count. Instead of trying to go through a full introduction of the character, we learn along with the character who he is through a short adventure.  

The plot of this story is very short and my main criticism would be that it is such a brief introduction that we aren’t able to learn very much about the overarching story. This is not unique in the Saints and Sinners issue, there are others that suffer from this at varying levels. The reason it stands out to me most in this story is that the main character is the most interesting to me and is the best example of a “Saint” in a book called Saints and Sinners. I hope that this character and where he fits into the comic universe is expanded on in the future.

The art in this story is gritty and dark. The first few panels are drawn with rain, which is always a fascinating effect to see drawn in comics. I’m very far from anything that could be considered an artist, but it seems to me that rain would be difficult to draw with characters at all different angles and lighting. The main character design feels like someone right out of classic noir stories. The constant, steely scowl stuck to his face in each panel makes his personality very clear. There are a few panels in this story that are brutal and grim. The artist deftly conveyed the feeling of sorrow mixed with disgust. Overall, the art in this story didn’t show as much action or complex scenes, but the facial expressions and character models were used to great effect to show emotion and personality. Also, I appreciated the lightning effects used in some areas to draw the eye across a panel as well as assisting greatly in the intrigue of the final scene. 

The main character is written to be brazen and decisive and the scant amount of dialogue portrays that clearly. He’s a man of action and is quite capable of extreme violence. I enjoy characters like this in stories. They generally have a clear goal in each scene and they take the shortest route to it. They waste very little time or dialogue and they don’t stop for anyone standing in their way. The piece that appeals to me, especially as a Catholic, is the character’s arc from darkness to light. He starts by remembering a dark past and ends with the final panel being in the light of a church. The reveal near the end that sheds a little more light on the character’s backstory is interesting and would be fun to investigate further. This also might be something that is already established in-universe that I’m unaware of. Either way, I hope to find out more of this character’s story in the future. This was a great setup for a compelling storyline.

The side characters in this story and their dialogue are all written styles that are familiar archetypes. This is another area, similar to the memory loss trope, that I think the author uses very effectively to “cheat” more personality into the characters. These are characters that fit a general mold that readers will intuitively understand without expansive explanation due to having seen similar characters in other stories. For example, the two black suited g-men don’t give very much info, but just the line of “that’s classified, Detective Davies. You don’t have clearance for that intel” (I loved this classic line, by the way)  lets us know the basics of who they are in one panel. They are secretive government agency types who are authoritative, cold, and look down on those who they see as under their charge. This method of fleshing out side-characters stuck out to me as an effective use of the limited page count.

Overall, I enjoyed this entry in this anthology. It offers a type of narrative that is distinct from the others and one that I personally enjoy to a great extent. Most of my favorite stories are redemption arcs and this has the potential to be a first-rate portrayal of one. I greatly appreciate the underlying principles this story seems to hint at. The description that comes to mind is “the Punisher, but the way I always wanted him to be.” I do see this story as having the highest ceiling and lowest floor in terms of quality. If the story continues, I could see this being my favorite character to come out of Saints and Sinners. But if not, I think this story would leave the mystery about who the character is and where their story is going too open ended. I hope Jay David gets more shots at writing in this universe, because I need to see where this goes. 

-Patrick Jones