Typical. We try to do a humanitarian mission. We actually start a war. Great.
Keep reading for a review of Die #12.
Warning, some spoilers below, some for this issue and a lot for last issue.
So last issue I mentioned a cliffhanger, and what I thought it meant, and I was right: Angela’s daughter from the real world is somehow in the world of Die, and she’s one of the Fallen, which means she was killed in Die too. (The other option was that Angela, as the Neo, had given birth to a daughter here in Die, the same way Ash –sort of– had a son, but no, this is the real Angela’s real daughter, except several years older than the last time she saw her in the real world. And, you know, dead.)
This is important because it’s one more confirmation that the timelines are completely borked. If Sol created Die, and the Fallen are real people who’ve died in Die, then how were there Fallen in Die before the Party arrived? How is Angela’s daughter older than she should be? Charlotte Brontë had something to do with the creation of Die, but there’s signs that it existed before she ever wrote stories about it.
Question though: when Angela saw that her daughter was older, she panicked and asked “is time passing quicker here than in the real world?” I’m trying to figure out what she meant: if she meant her daughter aged more years in the real world before she came to Die, wouldn’t that mean Die is going slower? Or does she mean her daughter came over somehow before the Party did, and aged those years inside Die before she died …. like I said: the timeline’s borked.
Angela isn’t really interested in the logistics, because her daughter is basically a corpse that’s still talking and she needs to fix that.
All the Doctor Who bullshit is my only hope.
Another question: I don’t remember when we learned that if a Fallen kills someone, they come back to life. That sounds…vaguely familiar? It’s a heck of a plot point, in this case specifically. I do know that last issue Sol mentioned his insides sliding around, so the Fallen are animated but continue to rot. That puts a time limit on things.
Meanwhile, Ash is dealing with the fact that other countries have started declaring war on Angria. Ash threw Glass Town to Eternal Prussia to defeat Sol, and took over Angria to help the people of Glass Town (and her son) and I’m sure she hoped that everybody would be scared enough of Eternal Prussia to just forget about that, aaaaaand nope. They know what the Dictators can do, they know she’s in charge of the Dictators, and they don’t want anything to do with any of that.
She’s become enough of a Bad Guy that she’d justify using her mind-control powers to smooth things out…but if she uses her powers on someone new, that’ll free the vampire Zamorna, and she’d live about a half second after that. (I looked back at the issue where she used her power on him: I thought it was a bad idea then and I still do now. Did she really think she’d never need to use her powers on anyone else ever again?)
But it’s all based on a game, and Ash knows that she and the Party aren’t the only people playing, and someone’s punishing her for breaking the rules. Sol’s locked in a jar and Izzy’s gods aren’t playing, so she needs to talk to another one of the Masters of Die.
We got a hint of who that’d be when Zamorna said the south was “a place with a touch of the future to it. And worlds as yet undreamed.” I need to read more about the person who showed up: I know who he is, but I could use an explanation for all the ominous things Charlotte said about him.
And before I forget: Zamorna also mentioned the Northern lands where the Lion rules, “all is parable with but one moral: “Obey.” It’s a tyranny in a velvet glove…” I need Die’s version of Aslan to show up and I need it VERY QUICKLY PLEASE THANK YOU.
As for Stephanie Hans’ art, what can I say that I haven’t already said many times? I loved Augustus’ face when he told his mother why he was leaving for the war, Angela’s face when she told Chuck he had a 50:50 chance, not to mention that gorgeous cover, and I will never get tired of looking at Charlotte Brontë’s design, I swear I’m going to cosplay that one of these days.
