Twig stubbornly continues on his quest despite feeling that he has failed every step. But has he really failed? Find out in Twig #5 from Image Comics!
TWIG #5
Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Kyle Strahm
Colorist: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Editor: Joel Enos
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 7, 2022
Previously in Twig: The title character is on a quest to save the world. This requires the heart of the last Horned Beast in the world, an innocent and gentle creature Twig cannot bring himself to kill. The Beast’s family were killed before they could name him. Splat names him Lobee, and Lobee agrees to accompany them on their quest. Lobee asks Twig how he must save the world, and Twig explains that his job as a Placeling is to make sure everything is in its right place so the world can be saved. He does not know much more because his father died before he could share his knowledge. The next item Twig needs is a song, and to obtain this he must let a creature out of the box it has been locked in. And now he must get to the moon.
NOTHING GOES AS ANTICIPATED
Twig #5 opens as Twig is about to leave his friends to continue on his quest, but the Hunter has caught up with them. Now he can get the Placeling hide he wanted, but also the Horn of the Horned Beast. They run; the Hunter chases. Then Lobee turns around. To save his friends, he charges toward the Hunter and leaps onto the fragile stone bridge which shatters beneath them, sending them both into the depths below.
Splat urges Twig to hurry, but what is the point? The heart of the last Horned Beast is now gone, and it will be impossible to mend the stone. He has failed. He looks up to see Splat with his bag doggedly heading onward. Twig might be wallowing in self-pity, but he is going to keep moving. Twig decides to join him. There is a charming scene where Twig cooks a meal for them, an izipa flat, which looks for all the world like a pizza. This was a favorite meal of his father’s. Then he remembers something his father told him about having heart, and he realizes that he did not need Lobee’s physical heart after all. What he needed was Lobee showing them how much heart he had by saving them.
And then who should appear above them but Lobee himself in a boat that sails the skies. Captain Ploom was headed out to do some fog fishing when he came across Lobee. After his fall, he landed on a tiny twig jutting out from a rock formation. Ploom takes all of them to the edge of the old lands. After more steep climbing, they reach a path where Twig realizes he must continue alone.
A travel montage brings him up into the sky to a floating rock near the moon. He must sing, and we learn that in last issue, the being from the box told him he could not give Twig a song; Twig had to find his own song in his heart. He does, and magic fills the stone.
Back on the ground, Splat reminds Twig that he is going to be late. He races desperately to get the stone placed in the center of a standing stone. They run off and hide, just in the nick of time. Twig’s quest is not to save the world. His quest is to get things in place so the Chosen One will find them in time to save the world. And indeed, the Chosen One reaches the standing stone and takes the last Heart Stone, which is the stone Twig placed.
A BREATHLESSLY BEAUTIFUL WORLD
Twig #5 is a fantastic book and that is due in great part to the jaw-dropping art. Every panel gives us more depth to the already rich world, but the design of the settings serves a purpose. The art is so engaging that we do not see the set up happening, but the payoff is smooth and seamless. The opening scene with the Hunter is a terrific example. It is set on impossibly floating, rocky paths that wind through the air with no apparent support. Running through them, bouncing from spire to spire, is work. Then Lobee makes his stand, which is to hurl himself as hard as possible on the winding path and shatter it. This works because in retrospect, the path looks like it could be structurally fragile.
Twig’s final trip to the moon is a silent travel montage which I could look at all day. Twig launches himself into the near space of his world which is full of odd floating objects that are as varied as the surface of the planet. Twig hops from rock to rock, small ones and enormous ones. Up and down is meaningless – gravity on the surface of any object depends on where its center is. Finally, Twig gets close to the moon against a colorfully washed sky with golden stars. It is majestic, magical, and profoundly beautiful.
BOTTOM LINE: SMALL THINGS MATTER
I really liked the idea of the unlikely hero whose job is to work behind the scenes to make sure the obvious hero can save the world when his time comes. This idea gradually unfolds before us, and it gives us a charming story where Twig goes through his own quest and learns his own lessons, all while just trying to do his job.
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Twig #5
Twig realizes what it means to have heart, and we learn about the hero behind the hero.
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Art10
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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.