Kaya is alone in the Poisonlands, except for the young mutant Runt, who offers to help her find Jin. Can she reach Jin in time before he is completely lost in delirium? Find out in Kaya #10 from Image Comics!
KAYA #10
Writer: Wes Craig
Artist: Wes Craig
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: AW’s Tom Napolitano
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 9, 2023
Previously in Kaya: Prince Zewl, the mutant, wants Lord Vox, the robot, to tell him why he wants Jin so badly. To force his point, he almost drowns Jin in the poisonous waters. Jin confesses that he is the Golden One, and Zewl laughs. He wants Vox to help him in his fight for the throne. Kaya has lost her arm and, even worse, Jin’s trail. She happens upon Runt, who was exiled by Zewl. He offers to help her. Seth, Nepta, and Muska reach the ruined boat only to find that it is an ambush by mutants, and then a group of Magrons shows up. Nepta is badly wounded, but he reminds Seth that their people must join together to avoid being destroyed.
BATTLING INNER DEMONS
Kaya #10 opens in Prince Zewl’s camp. His uncle is concerned for Jin. The boy took on too much poisonous water and is sick and delirious. Zewl callously states that it doesn’t matter, just as long as the robots get Jin, and he gets his throne.
Jin is in a dreamland. He believes he will be transformed, and he decides he will become a dragon. Voices in his head tell him he is nothing, he is stupid, he is not magical. Then an all-robot version of Kaya appears in his dream.
Kaya has wrestled Runt into her control and demands to know who he is. When he says he will help her get to Jin, she does not believe him and threatens to throw him into the river, a nice parallel of storytelling. He insists he wants to get back at his kin, and something in his story has the sound of truth. His plan is to get to the mutants before they reach the Atrian commander so Kaya can set Jin free. He does not intend to join them. He does not feel like he fits into their culture. For a moment, we see some creatures from the Poisonlands, ghost deer. Runt comments that there is beauty to be found even here. It is a profound moment.
Then a large group of mutants arrives with the Great King leading them. They decide to kill Runt, who claims he has renounced his family to join them. He tells them about Zewl’s plot to make a deal with the robots. It turns out that nobody likes the robots.
In his dream, Jin still wants to turn into a dragon. His vision of Kaya tells him he must start out smaller. It also becomes apparent that the two of them are trapped in their surroundings. Jin must find his purpose to be able to get them out. He decides he should turn into a snake, but still, he cannot make the transformation.
One mutant who survived the ambush on Seth reaches Zewl’s camp. Everyone else was lost to the Magrons. Zewl wants to know about Kaya and the lizard riders. The mutant saw that Kaya was carried off, and he assumes the others are dead. Zewl is not pleased and is about to kill him when a different robot arrives at their camp.
UNCANNY BEAUTY
We have gotten used to the Poisonlands that we see in Kaya #10 as an inhospitable place, a land where only the tough survive. It is a place where minor warlords feud and maintain their status by killing their opponents. It is a harsh and thorny place. Yet Runt brings something new into the mix. He has been picked on all his life; treated as lesser even among his kin. We have seen before that he is observant; now we see that he is thoughtful. He can conceive of a life beyond the brutality. We realize this at the moment that the ghost deer appear, odd creatures but strangely beautiful, and just as we understand that there is more to Runt than we thought, we understand that there is more to the Poisonlands too.
Jin’s delirium is given life as a place that is almost completely unlike the real world. The color scheme is primarily black and white and gold. Shapes suggested by Jin’s form become runes and then become abstract patterns in the background. It makes connections between things much like a dream – we see connections, but we do not understand why they are connected. Jin can barely hold a thought in mind before other voices in his head crowd it out. His self-doubts are given life, and even while Kaya, his anchor in life, appears in his dream, she could slip away at any moment.
BOTTOM LINE: A TRIAL OF THE SOUL
Kaya #10 has a brother and sister, separated by an unknown distance, each at the lowest point we have seen yet. We know Kaya is stubborn enough to push forward. Can Jin reach inside himself, find out who he is, and make a difference?
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Kaya #10
Kaya does not know where her allies currently are, but can she trust Runt to get her closer to her brother?
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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.