Answers Sought But Not Found – Animosity #22 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Ben, Potter, and Zarza charge into the House of the Hibernaculum to find Jesse and Sandor. They find a giant snake inside and instinctively attack it. However, this is the Serpent King, and he is on his way to deliver the antidote to Jesse and Sandor. They also invoke the Lindworm, and this leads Jesse to see the Lindworm in her dreams. The Lindworm challenges her to reveal her true self, so the Lindworm, Jesse, and Sandor begin shedding their layers until they reveal their true selves.
Animosity #22 finds Jesse and Sandor on the tail end of their venom-fueled journey in the Hibernaculum. The snakes that live with the Hibernaculum wanted to see if a young human like Jesse could see God or magic while under the influence of their venom. She hasn’t.
When Jesse comes out of it, she gives the snakes a somewhat tepid answer about how they should follow their instincts and continue their search for magic because it gives them the meaning they seek. While I don’t disagree with this answer, it’s a little anticlimactic.
The more meaningful resolution comes after the fact when Jesse and Sandor have a heart-to-heart. It expands on this idea of us seeking our own meaning in this world, and it’s also extremely touching and heartfelt. Jesse and Sandor are great characters, and this is a great moment in their patchwork familial relationship.
Elton Thomasi continues to rock it in the art department of Animosity. The visuals during the venom trip are aptly strange yet meaningful. Thomasi also does a good job of making Sandor and Jesse’s heart-to-heart even more touching with the visual emotion each character shows. Rob Schwager and DC Alonso tag team the color art in this issue, and the shades they make are beautiful, especially within the Hibernaculum.
Animosity #22 is another impactful issue in Marguerite Bennett’s series about talking animals and post-apocalypses. Sandor and Jesse reach a pivotal moment in their relationship, and we get to see how they recover from their search for meaning. This one gets a recommendation. Check it out.
Animosity #22 comes to us from writer Marguerite Bennett, artist Elton Thomasi, color artists Rob Schwager and DC Alonso, letterer Taylor Esposito, and cover artist Rafael de Latorre with Marcelo Maiolo.
Final Score: 8/10
