Bitter Root, Vol. 3: Legacy

Bitter Root #3

by David F. Walker, Chuck Brown, Sanford Greene (Artist)

It is 1925, a great evil has invaded the world, and the monster-hunting Sangerye family is about to discover that they do not have what it takes to protect themselves, let alone humanity. The only way the Sangeryes can ever hope to defeat the sinister forces ravaging the world is if they each face their own internal demons...but some will not survive. The Eisner and Ringo-award winning team return for the epic showdown that will determine the fate of one family, and the world.

Collects BITTER ROOT #11-15

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Supernatural

152 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2021

About the author

David F. Walker is a writer, filmmaker, and award-winning journalist. He teaches Writing For Comics at Portland State University.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

The scattered storytelling lost me as it jumped around between locales, characters, and time periods. There is an attempt to show the epic scope of the struggle, but it felt more like flailing to secure a legacy as the series goes into an indefinite hiatus. Perhaps it will return if progress is made on the movie in development with director Regina King.

Usually, I enjoy the end matter as much or more than the story, but nothing really stood out this time.

Disappointing.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check out review/discussion here: https://youtu.be/5n43MWvRpxU

[Tyler Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series and am so glad for the essays in the back, helping bring more context to it all.

[Chris Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A narrative mess. The story jumps all over the place with very little continuity. Characters will suddenly appear in battle, and we barely know what it is they’re fighting. It feels like this was rushed.

[Thea Jacobsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The scattered storytelling of Bitter Root makes it progressively more and more difficult for me to engage with the cast of characters. The time spent with them feels cut short as the story becomes more like a montage. A good montage, but without the quiet moments it fails to immerse me. Though in many ways this doesn’t matter. The story still manages to make its message clear in a way that resonates. Even with many questions left unanswered the story wraps up nicely. However, as someone who prefers character driven narratives, this volume strikes me on a more cerebral level rather than an emotional one.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best page is the last page, where the creators confirm that this is not the last BITTER ROOT story that they will be telling. But even if it was, you couldn’t ask for a better ending. And having a point of finality lets us revisit the 15-issue, 3-volume run as a discreet work.

What an incredibly special thing to have come out at the time that it did. Few artists can comment so effectively on their own times as they are still happening, and to do it by reflecting back on a past that is still just barely within living memory… it’s incredible. A remarkable achievement.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: BITTER ROOT is the most important comics being made right now. What a joy and a pleasure it has been to enjoy it in its own time.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Individual issue reviews: #11 | #12 | #13 | #14 | #15

Total review score: 2.45

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't even bother trying to follow along with the story. I just went through and enjoyed the art and the fun. A lot of respect to the creators for putting this together and I'm interested to see if it's adapted to another medium. I think that it has potential if it's reigned in a bit and more focused.

[Kaylen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful close to a great story! Very well written and I just love this family. I have become so obsessed with the characters and how they evolve over the series. I was nervous about reading graphic novels for the first time. Simply, because I didn’t know what to expect, but I was thoroughly impressed and the illustration was the icing on the cake. Absolutely stunning on top of a great story with so much depth. This series dived head first into topics we still deal with to this very day. The authors were able to discuss such controversial issues in such a creative, honest, yet still positive light.

[nukes · Rating 4 out of 5]

really strong finish actually! i’m glad there was something of a recap at the beginning of this because the last volume was pretty sloppy and left me so lost. this is a good wrap-up, i’d say, even if nothing really got wrapped up at all lol but i know that’s active commentary on the state of society rather than just trying to close out the story. i liked a lot of these characters (especially blink!) and found that the art really pulls a lot of the story’s weight. wasn’t too crazy about the achronological timeline… because really we didn’t need any of that and it didn’t aid to the mystery or anything. pretty okay series though i’m cool with it

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

And then the rushed ending. Bounces around in time so as to tell the remaining story faster. The Sangeryes continue to fight Jinoo, Inzondo and a new monster which looks like a hanging tree. Honestly, the hanging tree monster is easily the best horror element of the series. The Inzondo are incurable but rehabilitable. Over the years the battle seems endless.

I had trouble telling some of the characters apart in this one. I didn't have that problem in the beginning of the series. This volume also leans heavy into the metaphor about the demons in people's hearts.

[effa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 - Sadly, this last volume disappointed. The story felt too rushed. It progressed more through heavy text and explanations instead of being told through art and a slow developmemt of the story. Character development also came up short. There were a lot of scene and time jumps which was very confusing at times. Still love the art and coloring style!

[Deidra (ShadeTreeReads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art in this series is still some of my all-time favorite in comics. I did want more from the ending and that's the main reason I didn't give this 5 stars.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the artwork and mythology in this series, but this volume was kind of all over the place with time/dimension/narration jumps that made it hard to follow.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one more than vol 2
I think because I read the articles in the back before reading the graphic novel
And realized my biggest issue with these. There is a lot of jumping between places/worlds/times, it is too much jumping. I would rather stay in one time/place for longer
But overall I enjoyed these graphic novels.

[Trike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the previous volumes, mostly due to the fact it jumps around in time and space. I had to keep flipping back to see where certain sections left off because there didn’t seem to be any logic to it. That pretty much broke the character throughlines and story continuity for me.

[Tim O'neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I’d known that this was “The End”: I think that’d’ve put this in better context for me as I was reading. I read Vol. 1 in December ’21 and Vol. 2 in December ’22, so it always takes me a little time to catch up and remember who the characters are, and this one starts time jumping in a way that was a little disoriëting while I was catching up. But I did manage to get back into it and found some satisfyïng thematic resonance thruöut. I was a little sad that just when I was fully in the swing of things, it ended. If I’d known the whole time that this was putting a pin on the whole thing, I think I’d’ve appreciäted it more. So while my experiënce was between ⭐⭐-⭐⭐⭐ for some of the issue, at the end I realized this was at least a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ conclusion, and I feel confident with that rating. If they haven’t come out with a new volume by next December, mebbe I’ll sit down and read all three of these to get the full experiënce.

[Håvard · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the answer the Sangerye family have been looking for is finally found, but then immediately lost again, my first thought was "well, that was unnecessary". But that's racism, I guess. Just needless loss.

As a consequence, however, this third (and final?) volume provides little to no actual answers to the mysteries behind Barzakh, Adro, the jinoo, and a new emergent threat— on the contrary, I felt it left yet more questions hanging. But that was still okay.

Because once again, this series — despite its technical flaws or shortcomings — proves it has a power and heft and a sorrow that's difficult to put into words, let alone the right words, yet they've somehow done it anyway.

So I round off this review of some amount of words that don't actually say very much about a series that is very, very good. A series I'll definitely come back to, several times — maybe I'll find better words to say.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW. I went into this series thinking it was just about a Black family fighting monsters, but it was so much more than that. This story really dives deep into how easily humanity as a whole is willing to give into hate and trauma, and how that can affect our actual souls and our planet, and end up turning it against us.

So many themes and tough conversations were had in these short volumes; things like racism, hate, fighting over differences like religion and the color of our skin, how selfish and blind we can be when our neighbors and our planet is hurting, how we are being the cause of our own destruction.

This was a powerful series that really has left an impact on me, and one that I will always be thinking about.

I 100% recommend this if you haven't read it.

(Shoutout to Bookishrealm and her bookclub for introducing me to this series!)

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up to recognize that I still very much love the premise of Bitter Root and the freshness it brings to comics.

I’ll be honest, the execution here is messy. Improved from volume two, but still somewhat incoherent despite compelling characters, dynamic artwork, and concepts and premises to die for. The narrative is scattered and inconsistent, and it weakens the fascinating and brilliant themes that originally drew me to this series. It’s a real shame because, man, I was rooting for this series so hard. (Pun not intended, but accepted.)

I don’t know. It’s just kind of a let down. It’s not bad, but it’s not nearly as good as it could be, much to my endless frustration and disappointment.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the conclusion to the series that is more confusing than any other point in the story. Book 3 pretty much says the same thing repeatedly from different characters and a different time period. Society will always hate, society will always have bad things and bad people, but one should always choose to fight even when it seems endless. Because of this, the book doesn’t really end it just shows that as time progresses, and the problems continue. Overall, I think the entire series was a massive undertaking in a psychological, idealistic, utopian philosophy that is at times hard to understand. I am glad I have read it, but it is not a series I would shout about from the rafters.

[Samuel Goldberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book (and retroactively this series) feels like it should have been a seminal Vertigo book from the 80s/90s that ran for 50+ issues. SO MUCH happens, so much is talked about, there’s so much wonder and beauty in the art, in the design. So much depth in the characters and world. So much is going on (better handled than in Vol 2) that I wished each story had gotten to be its own comic arc instead of a smaller part of a whole.

Very much looking forward to more (and hopefully some sort of animated adaptation in the future).

[mo be readin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed reading this as an entire series. It was great getting to know the Sangerye family and getting deep into the lore of this world - I just wanted a bit more from these last issues. These issues focused more on setting up any future encounters we get with this family, but a bit more storytelling and focus on the present would’ve been great. That and the time jumps took me out of the story a bit,, but I still liked getting these bits of info.

The essays and interviews were a joy to my academic, historian heart💚 definitely can’t wait to see where we go next with the Sangerye’s!

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed returning to this series. Enjoyed might not be the right word, as it is such a visual representation of racism and trauma as demonizing forces, but I can’t think of a better word for what I feel when submerged in the Bitter Root world with the Sangerye clan fighting evil. I saw recently that volume four will be out later this month and realized I missed volume three (probably because my public library didn’t obtain it until later). Had to reread volume two to remember where the story left off. Looking forward to volume four!

[Daniplx · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars to the Bitter Root comic series; a gorgeously illustrated series about real world racism and trauma.
•
I’m rating them as a whole because I flew through all three collections in a matter of a couple of days and they blend into one big story.
•
Overall, this was a really cool comic, with gorgeous art and a great story. It’s about a black family in 1920’s Harlem that hunt and fight monsters; but the monsters used to be people that let hate eat up their soul. I loved that they did that with the monster design-it allowed the comic to explore racism and trauma in a very tangible way (it made me think of Ring Shout in that sense). Of course, the stakes are raised even more when other monster types are introduced and threaten the world. Berg, Blink and Ma Etta were my favourite characters and I would read more of just them!
•
My biggest issue was that the second and third volumes jump around a lot story wise and for me it made it hard to keep everything straight and lost some of the tenseness for me.
What brought up my rating from 3.5 to 4 were the fantastic essays in the Bitter Truths sections at the end of each collection that covered many topics related to black history, art and how it ties to the comics. It added a lot of layers to it and I loved it.
•
If you like comics with monsters, some great characters and a unique way of dealing with real world issues I definitely recommend this series, it is definitely worth the read!

[Jas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really interested in this series but I struggled with this past volume. I think the bouncing back and forth between time was difficult for me to follow and then it seemed as if the issue suddenly resolved itself and then it just slipped 10-15 years ahead. The first two volumes really explored the way emotions like hate and grief can effect us and then the conclusion felt very rushed in comparison.

[Nicole Westen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like it when, in a book like this were you have a generations long enemy, someone finally takes a step back from the 'family business' and asks the question 'What are the monsters? Where did they come from? Why are we fighting them?' It adds depth to the plot when the monsters have a back story too.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing finish to the first arc (or the series, I don’t know which).
Demons are swarming over the world. Trees are turning into monsters. The old Sangereye solutions have stopped working. Has hate won?
It’s a great setup but the time shifts lost me even more than V2. It chokes off both the family and the supernatural drama. And the WWII ending scenes don’t work for a variety of reasons

[Paul Allard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing horror comic series - I gave up.

Much as I enjoyed the artwork and some of the story-telling, the constant changes of time period every couple of pages were a real pain. So I didn’t have the patience to find the book. "I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bitter Root lumbers to an end with some muddled storytelling over a pretty scattered timeline. The story seemed like it needed to rush to a conclusion, leaving little breathing room in the frenetic pacing. The premise of the series was solid, but the execution was a mess. Nice artwork throughout the series, with Sofie Dodgson's colors in particular being a standout.