By Night #5 Reveals The Rift Between Jane And Heather
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Jane, Heather, Chip, and Barney return from Otherworld. Jane is angry with Heather for dropping her into a beast’s nest in Otherworld. Heather gives time to cool off, but Heather is still angry with herself, too. Meanwhile, Gardt is brought before a quorum in Otherworld to answer for helping Jane, Heather, and the crew while they were there. Gardt is sentenced to death on Mount Eucchurus, the sentient mountain ruler of the Otherworld. Back on Earth, Chip tries to mend things between Jane and Heather, and Jane works on the footage they got from Otherworld.
By Night #5 brings more strife into the relationship between Jane and Heather, and it explains their history and why their friendship went awry years ago.
It also reveals how the Otherworld works in some ways, particularly how it’s ruled and its intent to keep humans out of the realm.
All in all, it’s a robust issue that advances the plot but focuses primarily on character development.
The backstory for Jane and Heather is the highlight of the issue. It shows the kind of person Heather once was and created a rift between she and Jane. It’s also done in a fairly comical fashion, with Heather using code words, like “cuddling bunnies” and “drinking sparkling water” for the (debatably) morally ambiguous things she used to do.
Also, Gardt is pretty fantastic.
Christine Larsen’s artwork is once again quite cute, and the designs for the Otherworld creatures are quite creative. The overall visual aesthetic straddles the line of innocent and ominous, and that is what By Night needs for its narrative. Sarah Stern’s color art balances the lighter and darker shades in a similar manner, and the resulting comic looks darn good.
By Night #5 is another enjoyable and grabbing issue for the Boom! Box sci-fi/fantasy series. We learn more about Heather and Jane, and Chip and Gardt continue to be charming and endearing characters. This one is worth a recommendation. Feel free to check it out.
By Night #5 comes to us from writer John Allison, artist and cover artist Christine Larsen, color artist and variant cover artist Sarah Stern, and letterer Jim Campbell.