Jess is exiled to Las Vegas, but that does not mean she is away from the action. People have stopped dying, even when their hearts stop, or they have fatal injuries. Is she somehow responsible for this? Find out in Grim #7 from BOOM! Studios.

GRIM #7

Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Flaviano
Colorist: Rico Renzi
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Editor: Eric Harburn
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 11, 2023

Previously in Grim: A new character, Harold, the messenger, meets the Three Fates in Las Vegas. Jess, Eddie, and Marcel take advantage of their exile to attend a concert. Jess wanders into the desert where she meets a woman who recites to her a poem about death. She then lights a match, starts a fire, and walks into it. Jess goes into the flames to pull her out. She is severely burned, but still alive. She has a strange symbol on her forehead. And when the EMTs arrive, Eddie notices that they all bear the same symbol, as do all the onlookers.

AND THEN THERE IS NO END

Grim #7 opens in a hospital room where a man with family gathered around him is receiving last rites. The priest makes the sign of the Cross on his forehead but does not appear to see the red symbol that is already there. The man’s oxygen mask is removed, and the family grieves – but the man does not die. Everyone has the red symbol on their foreheads.

The problem gets horrifyingly worse. In the ICU, a man whose heart has stopped continues to live. People with severe injuries remain alive, but those injuries do not heal, and the pain does not stop. They beg for release. They beg for death. More people keep arriving and soon there is no room for them. Among the desperate, the priest has no answers, especially when confronted with the question of whether this is a miracle or whether it is Hell.

The priest returns to his church and prays for an answer. Is this part of the Lord’s plan? If it is, can there at least be some mercy? Jess interrupts him. She sits in the front pew and tells him that she believes that whatever is happening is her fault. She believes she made a mistake, and as a consequence, everyone is suffering. This is more familiar territory for the priest who challenges her. Did she personally know everyone in the hospital? Isn’t it a bit self-centered of her to put herself in the middle of this? She knows the words of the Bible as well as he does. What will happen to his faith now that no one can die? Both of them have good points.

Indeed, the priest’s faith is being challenged. But he admits that it is tested every day. And that is his job, and it is his faith, and his personal belief is his choice.

Eddie and Marcel rush in to tell Jess that things are getting worse. It is not just Las Vegas where there is no death; there are riots around the world and people are not dying. The three of them seem to be the only ones who can see the symbols on people’s foreheads. Jess has the gut feeling that it may be some sort of death mark, but how can it be that when no one dies? The chaos devolves into cacophony and Jess is overwhelmed by the noise until she finds herself alone with the Three Fates.

DOES LIFE LOSE MEANING WITHOUT DEATH?

The art of Grim #7 takes this concept of eternal life and shows us its dark side. It starts with grief which it shows to us in shadows. The dying man’s room is kept dark. We can sense his quiet, his stillness. Grief is a tangible and quiet presence, but it seems like familiar territory to the priest. The family is together, but isolated from the rest of the world. Grief is private here. But when the man does not die, it is not jubilation that crosses people’s faces. It is disbelief, even dismay. This small drama sets the tone for the rest of the issue.

And that death that did not occur was one of the quietest that one can have. Taking this undeath beyond the private room and to the ICU rapidly shows us how wrong and how awful it could be. Many of these people have such severe injuries that they may not have survived to even reach the ICU. The bleeding does not stop. The pain does not stop. Death does not come for them. The staff rapidly become overwhelmed. How quickly what might be thought of as a miracle turns into a nightmare.

BOTTOM LINE: DEEP AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING

Grim #7 takes the idea of, “What if there is no Death?” quite literally and takes us to its darker side, and it is a darker side that only continues to grow. I like this as a way of pivoting the story from focusing on Jess to focusing on Death both as personified and in the abstract.

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Grim #7

80%

80%

The darker side continues to grow

A world without death is not a world without pain.

• Writing

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• Art

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• Coloring

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