Sigil, Vol. 2: The Marked Man TPB
Review by Doc Ezra
Story:
Art:

Written by Mark Waid and Barbara Kesel
Pencils by George Perez, Scot Eaton, and Kevin Sharpe
Inks by Mike Perkins, Andrew Hennessy and Randy Elliott
Colors by Lauray DePuy and Wil Quintana
Letters by Dave Lanphear and Troy Peteri

Published by CrossGen
Contents: CrossGen Chronicles #4, Sigil #8-14
Price: $19.95

My advice: Own it.

Having survived Tchlusarud's attacks, an encounter with Trenin of the first, and the fury of the Sultan of Tanipal, Samandahl Rey is now in command of a new and improved Bitterluck, having merged the original ship with Trenin's craft in order to save Roiya's digital self from destruction. Zanniati, the Sultan's runaway wife, is developing a fondness for Sam (and he likewise), and JeMerik Meer, the former Tanipali guardsman that is more than he lets on, seems to be developing a similar attraction to Sam's old soldier buddy Roiya. With all these budding relationships, it's almost easy to forget that this is a no-holds-barred plasma-blasting science fiction war epic. Then stuff starts blowing up, and your memory gets jogged a bit.

The Marked Man opens with a recollection by Roiya of the first mission she ever took with Samandahl Rey, and just how much she learned about her often-distant friend and captain of the Bitterluck. The story of their assault on Saurian nobility further reinforces the deep and abiding hatred between Rey and "Loser," making it plain that their feud is steeped in so much personal vendetta and rage that any resolution to the situation will needs be cataclysmic and bloody. From there, Zanniati attempts to convince her planet to throw off the yoke of the Sultan's rule, only to draw down her estranged husband's wrath on her homeworld. Only the intervention of Sam prevents the sultan from leveling the planet and taking Zanni back.

To complicate Sam's trouble with the Saurians, one of The First plays a dangerous game, gifting a Saurian weaponsmaster with tremendous power and christening him as an avatar of the Saurian god of combat--after offering the power to Tchlusarud, who refused it. This will be more trouble for Loser than he knows, but it will be a bit longer yet before the implications of his decision are made clear to him and everyone else. In the meantime, he'll have to make a deal with his deeply hated enemy Rey in order to rectify a damaged political situation on his own throneworld.

Waid's writing is tight throughout, and a slight improvement over Kesel's, though there's little to fault in either of them. The pencils of Eaton are superior to those of any of the other artists collected herein, but none of it looks bad, exactly. Eaton's work is just so good that anything else looks clunky and somehow "wrong" for the title. Despite the somewhat scattered staffing across the issues collected here, the book remains coherent and keeps good continuity. I still prefer the pencils of Eaton to the others here, though this isn't to cast aspersions on original penciler Lai.

This volume of the collected Sigil is heavy on plot, but never shirks the opportunity to hurl a few blaster bolts and blow some stuff up, which is precisely what makes this title great. It's a deeply character-driven story that's well-seasoned with pyrotechnics and pure adrenalin action. A rare thing in comics in general, and equally rare in the broader world of science fiction. The fact that CrossGen manages to tell a solid science fiction yarn while still making it very much an action-packed comic is testament to the collective talent in Alessi's stable. This has been one of their premiere titles from the beginning, and it continues to impress here. Anybody unfortunate enough to have missed the comics when they originally dropped should by all means get their hands on this collection.