Hannah and Regan got away but are inexorably drawn back as Vanessa lures them to Kingsly, where it all started. What does she have planned for them? Find out in Basilisk #8 from BOOM! Studios.
BASILISK #8
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Colorist: Alex Guimarães
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Editor: Eric Harburn
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 16, 2022
Previously in Basilisk: Regan and Hannah are on the run from Jimmy-Boy, one of the Chimera. He shoots out a tire from their vehicle and they crash. Regan orders Hannah to get out and run. On seeing the crash, Jimmy-Boy decides to chase Hannah. When he catches up to her, his powers influence her to bite her own hand, as though to chew it off. Regan, who followed him, kills him. Vanessa has been injured. Now one of her human followers urges her to lie low. This angers her further. But when Jimmy-Boy dies, even though he is far from her, she not only feels it, but she absorbs his powers. And Hannah realizes her hunt is becoming more difficult.
ACCELERATING TOWARD DEATH AND REVENGE
Basilisk #8 opens with another flashback. This time, it is when Hannah was released from the hospital. She is better enough to go home, but she has no home to go to and has no family to meet her. She walks away alone.
Now Hannah walks away again, away from where Jimmy-Boy died, but she is not alone. She and Regan, both injured and exhausted, still have each other to lean on. They find a hunting cabin, a place with guns and trucks.
Regan suddenly hears Vanessa in her head. She taunts her that she won’t be finished until she can take Vanessa herself out. Regan begs her to just take Cara and go away. Maybe they can stop this before it goes any further. Vanessa indicates that she has taken Cara’s powers and wants to face off with Hannah back in the town of Kingsly where it all started.
Hannah is eager to go after Vanessa. Regan warns her that she is unprepared for this fight and tries to urge her to put a stop to this. There is a serious risk that Vanessa could kill Regan and take her powers. Hannah finds a truck with keys in the ignition and gives Regan seconds to decide whether or not to come with her
Barret and his people meet Vanessa at Kingsly. The town is silent, almost a ghost town. Vanessa laments that there are no portents for her arrival. She sees herself as preparing to become the Chimera, to ascend to something like godhood. Her presence wafts through town insidiously killing some of the last residents.
Then Hannah drives the truck into her. Vanessa’s followers let loose a volley of gunfire. Regan and Hannah are still alive. Vanessa is badly injured, but alive. She tells Barret that all they need to do is to kill Regan and she, Vanessa, will be made whole again. Barret goes around to the followers telling them that the Chimera demands sacrifice. And he intends for the sacrifice to be Vanessa.
WHO IS THE SACRIFICE?
The art of Basilisk #8 is often bloody and sometimes gruesome. I appreciate that characters who have been injured remain injured. Hannah’s hand is still bleeding and is tied up in a tattered makeshift sling. Her pain is reflected in her face, but she also looks like someone who sees no way out but forward at this point. This sets up a contrast with Vanessa, who is also wounded. Vanessa is also moving only forward, but she moves with the fanatical confidence of someone who feels assured of her own impending divinity.
Vanessa features prominently and in seeing what she is capable of, we better understand the stakes. In Kingsly, she gets Barret to say his words of faith. What we see as the manifestation of her powers is very plant-like, with irregular tendrils and glowing bursts that look like flowers. This is imagery we associate with life, but as it reaches out to people, instead it consumes them, withers them, and sucks the life out of them like a macabre parasite. The lives she takes are small and meager, but does that make them any less important?
BOTTOM LINE: OF FAITH AND MADNESS
Basilisk #8 continues inexorably toward a final conflict that will only be all the more difficult as members of the Chimera have died. I love the way that the tension has kept building in this story and how everyone is so committed to their goals despite their setbacks.
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Basilisk #8
Hannah is driven toward revenge even as Regan sees how drastic the possible consequences are.
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Writing8
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Art8
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Coloring8
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.