Journeying Into The Unknown With The New World #5
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Kirby’s dad holds off Logan Maximus while Kirby and Stella make an escape. Stella and Kirby regroup at the border wall while Stella’s AI, Val, hacks into the New California computer systems. She makes some startling discoveries that she shares with our two runaway heroes. Before following through with their final plan, Stella and Kirby have it out one last time. Stella wants to leave, but Kirby wants to stay and fight the good fight.
The New World #5 concludes the miniseries, and, as is often the case, Ales Kot leaves some things quite vague while still giving the reader a lot to think about.
One thing that is pointedly left unsaid and is one of the better parts of this issue is that I can’t tell you whether Stella and Kirby split up, stay together, or leave together. I also can’t tell you what is on the other side of the border wall. In its telling of a narrative about what happens when we break free of a system of control, New World admits that no one knows what comes after that. To hit the nail on the head, none of us know what the New World would be. Kot only aims to give a stylized rendition of where we may be heading now.
Also, President Herod may be melting in this comic? That was another weirdly vague detail.
I also adore the samurai-esque representation of the showdown between Kirby’s dad and Logan Maximus. That was a great touch on the part of Kot and Tradd Moore.
Speaking of Tradd Moore’s artwork, it’s downright powerful in this issue. There is a lot of crying between Stella and Kirby, and it’s earned. Moore’s art makes it work. They’re just two kids on the edge of everything, and Moore helps convey that idea perfectly. Plus, the scenes between Kirby’s dad and Maximus as well as the scenes beyond the border wall give this gorgeous surrealism to the whole affair. Heather Moore’s color art gives the book a strange and almost pastel palette that oddly works very well for this comic.
The New World #5 brings a beautiful finale to the dystopian miniseries. Stella and Kirby face that they don’t know what is going to happen next, Kirby’s dad gets to be the hero he’s ignored for too long, and there’s a wonderful sense of optimistic possibility in the ending. This one is worth a recommendation. Check it out.
The New World #5 comes to us from writer Ales Kot, artist Tradd Moore, color artist Heather Moore, flatters Ludwig Olimba and Heather Moore, letterer Clayton Cowles, cover artist Tradd Moore with Heather Moore, and variant cover artist Tom Muller.
