Review – Southern Cross #6 (Image Comics)

Publisher: Image Comics
Author: Becky Cloonan
Artist: Andy Belanger
Publication Date: 16 December 2015

The Southern Cross is the cruiser set for the infamous Titan, the mining colony where Alex Braith’s sister Amber died in suspicious circumstances. Alex has boarded the cruiser to collect her sister’s remains but she is also intent on seeking answers. And find answers she does: in the sixth instalment of this series, Titan has yet to be reached, so all action has taken place on the six day journey from Earth to the mining colony, with each episode thus far corresponding to one day aboard the Southern Cross.

Though there has been some criticism as to her cold character and a lack of internal monologue in reviews of previous instalments, which makes it hard for the reader to connect with her, Alex is a definite anti-heroine and Belanger’s hard pencil lines present a hard, strong protagonist. Alex’s grunge or steampunk look is reminiscent of characters from the Streets of Rage video game from the 1990s, and also from the films in the Alien franchise. Indeed, it’s hard not to draw comparison to the Alien series with the steampunk design of the ship as all action is contained on the cruiser, which makes for a claustrophobic and tense atmosphere as Alex’s investigation continues.

Andy Belanger’s heavy pencilling thus contributes to the dark atmosphere and grimy industrial insides of the cruiser. This is greatly enhanced by Lee Loughridge’s colouring which, in addition to a kaleidoscopic fusion of colours to highlight the separate yet simultaneous experiences of characters, alternates between palettes that are very much connected to Alex’s state of mind. These include sepia tones for flashbacks of her sister, cold blues to document the unfamiliar, labyrinthine tunnels of the ship, and a golden glow that corresponds to the growing power of the ship’s white-hot core. Alex is more susceptible to the pulses emanating from the core, as passengers on the Southern Cross are generally workers from the mining colony and have thus built up a resistance to it with their frequent commutes.

This ‘sickness’ has greatly added to the supernatural mystery of the story, as Alex hears her sister’s voice and has wonderfully rendered and vividly coloured visions relating to the mysterious object on board the ship. Following on from the cliff-hanger ending in the previous episode, which culminated in the murder of one of the crew, the reader anticipates that this latest episode will build on the previous tension and sense of foreboding into a satisfactory climax, which it very much does, while holding out on just enough narrative details to make the reader anticipate the next instalment.

Illustrator Becky Cloonan continues to develop her portfolio as a writer with Southern Cross, after co-writing the Gotham Academy series for DC Comics with Brendan Fletcher, and the finale of this instalment delivers in terms of providing a suspense-filled climax while simultaneously leaving the ending open to a variety of possible narrative paths that this reader is very much looking forward to navigating in the next instalment of the series.

Rating: 3/5.

The Writer of this piece was: Rebecca Booth