Sacrifice #5

Written by Sam Humphries
Art by Dalton Rose

The second of two issues of Sacrifice that I picked up this week is just as good a read as the first.

Things have not gone well for the Aztecs after their first contact with the Spanish.  Despite the efforts of time traveller Hector in uniting the people of Mexico, he has not been able to stave off the effects of smallpox on a population that has no natural defense against it.

Now, the Aztecs are making a final stand at Tenochtitlan, and Hector, who has been in seclusion for the last six months, has to make a final sacrifice to try to save the whole thing.

This issue gets a little more psychedelic than the last few, returning more to the look of the first issue, which had Hector first arrive in Moctezuma's territory.  It's never been made clear if Hector has actually traveled through time, or if everything we've seen of him has been a sort of fever dream brought on by his own psychoses.  That uncertainty is amped up this issue, as we are given glimpses of both worlds.

While the delay between issues has been very long, so it's hard to remember all the details of this series, I must comment on how much story Sam Humphries has packed into the first five issues of this comic.  It really is a dense, nuanced read, and I feel that, after getting the final issue, I'm going to want to read through it all again in one or two sittings.