Ask For Mercy Season Two: The Heart of the Earth

Ask For Mercy (Collected Editions) #2

by Richard Starkings, Abigail Jill Harding (Artist)

THE HEART OF THE EARTH Collecting all five issues by creators Richard Starkings (writer) and Abigail Jill Harding (artist). Kasa takes Mercy, Ratmir and Budgie into the Black Hills of North America, 1876 where the course of history is at stake! Summoned by Lakota shaman, Medicine Bear, Mercy and her band of monsters discover that Ikto'mi, the Spider-trickster, is interfering with the lives of the people of the Black Hills and the American soldiers intent on driving them out! Part of the Comixology Originals line of exclusive digital content only available on Comixology and Kindle. Read for free as part of your subscription to Comixology Unlimited, Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime. Also available for purchase via Comixology, Kindle and in print via Dark Horse Books.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Comics

139 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2019

About the author

Richard Starkings is a British comics professional, known for writing the hit sci-fi series ELEPHANTMEN and specializing in lettering, thanks to his award-winning Comicraft lettering studio.

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this volume better than the first one on the series, but still failed to really pique much interest from me. In this volume, our protagonists find themselves in Montana 1876, just before George Custer's defeat in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Kasa is known by the Lakota as the White Buffalo Woman, who was prophesied to return in a time of need for the Lakota people.

While it was nice to explore that time period and setting, for most of the book our four protagonists didn't really have much to do but just sort of hang around with the Lakota as they went back to their encampment to prepare for the American soldiers to arrive. Budgie and Ratmir barely contribute to the story's events at all, while Mercy's (who the book is named after, you'll recall) sole contribution is to get possessed by Iktómi the trickster spider-spirit and end up killing Custer before the battle even begins, causing Kasa to have to resurrect him to repair the damage she's done to the way events are meant to unfold. So there are no consequences to anything the characters do here.

The characters don't really feel like they have much agency in this story and just seem to be along for the ride, which didn't make for a very satisfying experience. Mercy also spontaneously develops a new power out of nowhere, suddenly summoning monsters from the void dimension to fight a dream manifestation of the ghost of Andrew Jackson. I also didn't care for how nobody seems to have any issue at all with how Ratmir tried to destroy all humanity by helping the Nazis open a portal to another dimension full of evil bug creatures in the previous volume. All just seems to be completely forgiven and forgotten--in fact, the only one who even mentions it at all is the spider spirit in Mercy's body, but I would have expected his allies to have some concerns about the fact that he went full psycho and betrayed them all just a day prior.

Our protagonists are still paper thin and this volume does nothing to add any development to their personalities. I also don't care for how they still act as if they've known Mercy for years when they've really only known each other for a few days, perhaps a week at most?

I enjoyed the art better in this volume as well. Perhaps because so much of the story takes place outside in the daylight, and they aren't fighting bug creatures with ill-defined dangly bits on every page. I at least could tell what was happening in this volume, though much of what did happen felt pointless.

[Ronald Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artwork again was exceptional for this volume of Ask for Mercy, though quite different at times from that in the first compilation. The depiction of the Battle of the Little Bighorn was similar to Native American representations. The storyline this time was much more interesting than the Nazi retread of the first volume. One historic quibble: Custer was not a general at his death; he was a lieutenant colonel. He had been a brevet (honorary) brigadier and major general at times during the Civil War. Nice setup for the conclusion of the series.

[Rio · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75 stars.