Searching from Barzakh to the land of the Ancestors, can the Sangeryes find the answer to how to destroy the ever more numerous tree monsters? Find out in Bitter Root #15 from Image Comics!
BITTER ROOT #15
Writer: David F. Walker and Chuck Brown
Artist: Sanford Greene
Colorist: Sofie Dodgson
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Editor: Shelly Bond
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 11, 2021
Previously in Bitter Root: Everyone is part of the fight. Enoch was the first to wonder about the origins of the Jinoo and discovered the rabbit-like creatures (the Kantoo) that fight them. Dr. Sylvester learns more of Barzakh and how the beings who lived there let their emotions rule their intellect, and it was their undoing. Ma Etta reflects on her lifetime of people telling her what she could and could not do, and her determination to do things her own way. Ford, Cullen, and Sarah travel north, fighting trees and adding more people to their caravan. Blink visits Enoch’s grave, critical of herself as a leader. But Dr. Sylvester arrives with the news that he understands more about what they are fighting!
ALWAYS SOMETHING TO BE LEARNED
Bitter Root #15 opens quietly and majestically with Etta in the land of her ancestors. Martellus, the love of her life, tells her it is not her time, and this is not how things work. She is headstrong. She insists that they know something, and she needs to bring that knowledge home with her.
Blink and Nora find Etta sitting motionless. Nora fears she is dead and tries to wake her up. Etta does awaken, a little cranky about being interrupted from her visit with the ancestors. Nora shares the news that Ford and Cullen have returned, and Etta asks her to gather everyone together. This is the end of an arc, and plainly things are building up toward a finish.
Blink and Charlie get Dr. Sylvester up to speed. More people have come north to Harlem, thinking things will be better than in the South. Charlie remarks that the world has gotten worse instead of better over the time Sylvester was gone. Sylvester makes one of the very pointed comments – are things actually worse or are they just more obvious? – something that resonates strongly with us today. But is what the are seeing the end, or a new beginning?
The knowledge that Dr. Sylvester brings back includes the concept that people’s positive and negative experiences influence their inner energy, and that in turn reaches out to ancient entities, understood by humans as being gods, and they feed off this. Adro is one of these entities, and the way to survive them is to stop feeding them.
Perhaps easier said than done, as the Sangeryes and their allies gather to face one of the large trees and its guardian dogs. But first we flashback briefly and see Ma Etta teaching a group of children about the Fiif’no plant and how it helps against Jinoo. She talks about their new fight, against the trees that grow out of the hate and fear they carry in their hearts, how hate feeds on itself until it becomes its own things. Then a Kantoo digs into a Fiif’no plant, takes it over to one of the other ones, and it starts releasing pollen. There is always something new to learn.
This time, when they go to the tree, the plan is to protect each other, but not to attack the tree. That does not work; they have to have a new strategy. The tree represents hate, and to fight hate with hate accomplishes nothing. They need to let the Kantoo do their work. There are casualties, but the Kantoo get to the tree and pollinate it, which stops the hate.
Finally, with working together and moving beyond hate, they have found a solution. We don’t see all the work this takes during the close of the 1920’s, but the book ends with an epilogue in 1939 which ties everything off gloriously. It is such a perfect ending to the overall story. This has been an absolutely brilliant series and couldn’t have been issued at a more meaningful time. Better yet, there may yet be room for more stories. These characters, flaws and all, are worth cheering for, and this world are so rich and so interesting that I sincerely hope this is the case.
FROM HATRED TO TRIUMPH
The art of Bitter Root #15 practically sings. All throughout there are wonderful moments. I like the land of the Ancestors and seeing Etta’s Ancestors who have gone before her adds more flavor to the matriarch’s life. She wouldn’t be who she is without all of them being who they were before her. The centerpiece of it is an enormous tree, which is great symbolism in many ways. I particularly like, though, the way this benevolent, wide-spreading tree contrasts with the trees that have shown up on Earth, as though, twisted by hate, they become a mockery of tree in the land of the Ancestors.
There is plenty of action. There is a dramatic panel, two pages across, showing everyone going to confront the tree. From the handful of family members they started with, they have grown their allies and are a force to be reckoned with. There is powerful imagery, such as when Dr. Sylvester discusses the effects of hatred, and this is superimposed over images of police in 1925 shooting and killing a young Black man. But there are also wonderful moments of family, of people working together for a common goal, and of young people who will be the ones to inherit whatever kind of world comes through this fight.
BOTTOM LINE: A TRULY GRAND FINALE
Bitter Root #15 is a hugely satisfying closure for one of the most brilliant series I have ever read. The story is unflinching and gripping in its honesty. But it is also unyielding in showing us how persistence in focusing on the greater good is important. Honestly, it has been a privilege to read this book.
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Bitter Root #15
With the return of Dr. Sylvester, can the Sangeryes find an answer to Adro’s legacy of hatred?
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By day, she’s a mild-mannered bureaucrat and Ms. Know-It-All. By night, she’s a dance teacher and RPG player (although admittedly not on the same nights). On the weekends, she may be found judging Magic, playing Guild Wars 2 (badly), or following other creative pursuits. Holy Lack of Copious Free Time, Batman! While she’s always wished she had teleportation as her superpower, she suspects that super-speed would be much more practical because then she’d have time to finish up those steampunk costumes she’s also working on.