Jess Harrow and her friends are exiled to Las Vegas while Adira plots to rule the Afterlife. What new complications does she stumble across without her scythe? Find out in Grim #6 from BOOM! Studios.

GRIM #6

Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Flaviano
Colorist: Rico Renzi
Letterer:Tom Napolitano
Editor: Eric Harburn
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 14, 2022

Previously in Grim: Jessica realizes that Death is her father, and some things start to make more sense. Jess’s mother was human, and this has given Jess the ability to move between the worlds. Adira is Death’s sister and would do anything to control the Afterlife. Death has banished himself and allowed her to run it on the simple condition that she keeps Jess safe. The End arrives, claiming that Jess upsets the balance and must be taken. But Death will absolutely not give her up. Adira arrives and blames everything on Jess. When Eddie and Marcel stand up to her, she strands them in Death’s former prison.

FABULOUS LAS VEGAS

Grim # 6 opens in No Man’s Land in 1917. The battle is horrific and Death strides about the battlefield. We do not know how this ties in just yet, but it does remind us how death is omnipresent.

In Las Vegas, a muscular, bald man buys a ticket to a drag show. No smoking is allowed, but the ticket taker smokes, and the bald man lights up at his table. The present-day fades just a little and it turns out that the performers are the three Fates, and the man is Harold, the messenger. Things have changed, he says, and the Fates ask him whether he is speaking of the girl, her father, or the aunt. This is a family conflict with potentially huge consequences.

Jess, Eddie, and Marcel are at a music concert. If they had to be exiled, Eddie says cheerfully, at least it was Las Vegas. They are also there for Jess if she would like to talk. Jess insists she wants to be left alone. The music starts and the lead singer invokes the Devil. Jess rolls her eyes and walks away into the hills.

A Black woman with purple eye stops her, reciting a poem about Death by Keats. Jess does not recognize it. The woman claims that death is not to be feared; it gives life beauty. She lights a match and Jess sees a glowing symbol on her forehead, perhaps a stylized scythe. The woman drops the match. A fire blazes up and she walks into it.

Jess goes into the flames and pulls her out. Eddie and Marcel walk up to her, and she tries to explain, but then she sees that the woman, severely burned, is somehow still alive. A group of EMTs rushes over. Jess notices similar symbols on their foreheads. The concertgoers crowd around, and Eddie notices they all share the same symbol.

RITUAL AND FIRE

Grim #6 is surreal, which fits with a story about Grim Reapers. I really like the depiction of the Fates as drag queens. Honestly, I did not expect this. It looks as though we are just following Harold and watching the performance. Then we see him approach the performers and talk with them as calmly as though he does this all the time. We finally see their open eyes, and they are just red. Plainly they are not normal humans, and then we see them with a golden thread twining through their fingers, leading from one to the next.

The concert out in the desert works to introduce the latest complication. I wonder whether they are near real Las Vegas or if they are in an Afterlife version of it. I like the way the scene flows, but the distances feel off to me. Jess, Eddie, and Marcel find a vantage point up in the cliffs above the stage. We see them looking down over the crowds. From there, Jess has a short walk into the desert. But when she pulls the woman out of the fire, she is suddenly among all the concert goers. In some panels, there are bright rectangles visible, and these may be some sort of portal, but it is not entirely clear. It still works because the whole scene has a dreamlike feeling to it.

BOTTOM LINE: BIGGER PROBLEMS FOR JESS

We see from Grim #6 that the mystery of Jess’s origins now serves to lead us deeper into the mysteries of the Afterlife, and it may be more than just an unearthly family squabble.

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Grim #6

80%

80%

Jess knows who she is and knows that Adira is her aunt, but she does not realize she has landed in the middle of a huge conflict.

• Writing

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• Art

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• Coloring

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