Savage Dragon joins Toussaint against Seesaw and Anansi! Is this enough to tip the scales and start the final conflict? Find out in Killadelphia #33 from Image Comics!
KILLADELPHIA #33
Writer: Rodney Barnes
Artist: Jason Shawn Alexander and Germán Erramouspe
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
Editor: Greg Tumbarello and Chris Robinson
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 31, 2024
Previously in Killadelphia: Seesaw and Spawn fight a near-endless horde of demons. They realize that they are coming in from a hellhole. They confront Lucifer, who offers them plots in Hell, if they agree to succumb to him. Instead, they fight until Lucifer and Corson flee through a portal. Spawn follows them. On the streets of the city, some National Guardsmen hear singing and one of them recognizes Blake Edwards, a famous singer who has become a Vampire. Edwards was charmed by a producer, Ron Davies, as his career started, and reached the good life at the cost of his soul. Now Edwards has plans to dispose of Davies before he foists his deal on any other young men.
THE NUMBNESS OF SURVIVAL
Killadelphia #33 introduces us to Harold, another young Black man trying to survive. He goes to an apartment that has a chess game in front of it and an empty bucket. He makes a move and picks up the bucket. A narrator talks about chess as a metaphor for war, but the color of the lettering tells us that Harold is not the narrator. Harold goes outside with his bucket and harvests several rats. Is this what his life has become?
Seesaw’s fight pauses as Savage Dragon arrives. He looks at Seesaw, Anansi, and the Werewolves on one side and Toussaint on the other. He knows who the bad guys must be and shoots one of the Werewolves. Anansi tries to get everyone to talk, but instead, a fight breaks out.
Harold returns to the apartment with the meager bucket of rats. A gray-clawed hand takes a chess move and drags the bucket into the apartment. The narrator, for this is he, notices that Harold seems sad and invites him in to talk. Harold’s family was killed by Vampires. He is grieving and does not know quite how to process this. The voice talking to him has gone into a hole in the wall. It reassures him that life will go on and that he eventually will be able to get over what happened.
Elsewhere, the fight continues with Savage Dragon and Anansi trading barbs about Philadelphia and Chicago respectively. Anansi hits Dragon with enough magic to take him out, at least for a while.
Harold is out again hunting rats. There are not as many as he expected. A gang of young men approaches him. They want to know where he lives and what he has. Harold quietly takes them back to the apartment. They open the door and are surprised when clawed arms grab them and drag them inside. Harold closes the door behind them, but he cannot shut out the sound of their screams. Before too long, the door opens wide and body parts fly out. The thing in the wall is happy to have helped Harold and is grateful to Harold for helping it. It’s kind of like they are creating a new sort of family for Harold which, although true, is decidedly creepy.
Dragon regains consciousness and asks Seesaw if he is the ringleader. Seesaw says he is ready to die. Dragon pulls his gun on him. But Seesaw grabs him and the two of them are transported to Purgatory.
FINDING CONNECTIONS IN TRAUMA
Killadelphia #33 is an exploration of many sorts of horror and the art brings this home in Harold’s story. His circumstances hit uncomfortably close to reality. He is a young man who had a great, loving family and now they are all gone. He must survive on his own, and we see him make his way through the streets numbly, eyes downcast, hood halfway over his face. He could be a survivor of war, of natural disaster, of any sort of freak accident. Something in him keeps him going, but he does not appear to be completely part of the world. He is in the midst of grief with no one to help him through it, and it is heart-wrenching.
I think the deep personal pain of his story helps the issue flow by its contrast with the bombastic conflict among all the other main characters. Harold’s new reality is small and restricted. Meanwhile, Anansi, Seesaw, Dragon, and the others rumble through the streets of the city with detours to Hell and to Purgatory. They are all larger than life and their world extends well beyond the bounds of reality. But this contrast is a stark reminder that in conflict, many of the people who suffer are not in the direct lines, and the people in power may not take any knowledge of their existence.
BOTTOM LINE: THOUGHT-PROVOKING HORROR AT ITS BEST
Killadelphia #33 delivers with grandiose conflict that brings on the metaphors that hit uncomfortably close to home. It is a high-action book that can shock as well as amuse, but it can also make us think.
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Killadelphia #33
Savage Dragon has joined the fight, but can Seesaw get him to understand both sides of the conflict?
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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.