Outworlder #1—Pages 29 & 30

Is This Still Going?

Yes, dear reader, it is! Welcome to another episode issue installment of:

Outworlder #1!

I like using the #1. Makes it feel like there'll be a #2.

Yeah, right.

Let's get on with it, shall we?

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No name hero, looking for Ms. Moreman, former middle school English teacher, who he discovers was kidnapped by orders of Damontroth, a not-so-nice-guy we haven't met yet.

Forest dwelling girl who can feel injuries and illnesses, goes against her father's command and heals our hero after he is unceremoniously blasted from the sky. Now he and she are inseparable. Not physically, though. They're only "soulfully" joined.

Now they're reality hopping across a bridge in hopes of eventually getting to a humongous dome where Ms. Moreman is probably being held. Except things keep happening and even though they're literally soulmates, they're not getting along so great.

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While being zapped into space on their interdimensional journey, our heroes are first surprised, then bored to tears, and then annoyed (okay not everyone was), by the bickering, married, living television screens—Rutheford and Amelia! While the space monitors (get it?) argue over who is hot and who is not, our adventurers steal away to the next realm, a place of emptiness within wavy panels. As they, too, go at it (again)—this time over the appropriateness of their abrupt exit— they are set upon by a regally dressed woman who mocks our hero for his rudeness.

Then, she calls him Cal!

Three panels. All it takes is three panels to basically shred our hero. Who incidentally, does have a first name. And a last name. Cal Havenbrook.

I guess I can't call him our no name hero any longer. I'll have to adjust the summary, too.

Our heroine (still no name), is amazing, though, isn't she? Even while they are having their own heated debate, she sticks right up for him. Not knowing, or caring maybe, if any of what the queen said was true. Cal apparently thinks it is.

Whoa! Okay. Now that's a turn of events if I ever saw one. Defend your soulmate and catch the wrath of your father?! How'd he get here? We do finally get to see his face, though.

Not a very nice guy, is he? He sounds like a zealot, and like any zealot, there is no room for error. Unfortunately, requiring such a standard of perfection often leads to the zealot's own downfall, because, being human themselves, they fall short of their own overblown expectations.

Okay. Next.

_{Outworlder #1 is a graphic novel by Glen Albrethsen. Copyright © Glen Anthony Albrethsen, 1986-2018. All rights reserved.}

Hunh.

So, the queen knows Cal inside and out, and he now knows who she is.

I'm guessing you've already figured out what this place is all about. Wavy panels, manifestations of beings who either are or represent something or someone else.

Cal makes a good point. When we have others who care about us, who are willing to correct us when we're wrong and stand up for us when we're down, it's easier for us to measure ourselves. We truly find ourselves. Generally, we're never as awesome or as terrible as we think we are, but land somewhere in between. Plenty of good with some things to work on.

I'm not sure why Cal is guaranteeing he'll see the queen again. I mean, I know how this ends and there's no queen. But okay.

All right. Looks like we have another dimension change, but our heroine is there (albeit unconscious) and hey! Look! There's the staff! And it's burning again. Not sure what that is on either side of the bridge. Kind of looks like stars, although that could be some kind of water splash in that right corner above her arm.

Oh, and right on cue, there's the off panel voice! You know what that means, don't you?

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Who or what awaits our heroes in this new place? Do you know what the realm with the queen and our female protagonist's father was? (We really could stand to know her name, you know.) Will Cal explain it to our heroine when she wakes up? She will wake up, right?

There's always the slight chance some of that, or something else, will be revealed in the next pages. Maybe. Maybe not. Only one way to find out! Stay tuned, reader!

(Yes, I know. That didn't make any sense. It's called showmanship.)

Outworlder publishes every Tuesday and Thursday.