The sign of a good story sometimes comes in the form of presenting a jumping-on point at a later time, allowing new readers to take part in the story’s world without fully understanding what’s previously taken place. For Postal Volume 5, it’s exactly what you can expect to find as you dive into the town of Eden, and those looking to maintain its prosperity or burn it to the ground.
Writer Bryan Hill starts this trade paperback with an introduction that will identify the reason for the secret city, the history of its leadership, and what recent events have led to this exact moment in time. The current Mayor, Laura Shiffron, has been in charge of Eden for over ten years, after attempting to kill the founding leader – her ex-husband, Isaac. Recent tensions and questions of health have led Laura to trust her son, Mark, with a temporary assignment. He will take over as Mayor to prove to Laura whether or not he is capable of taking over as her successor, extending the Shiffron legacy, regardless of whether he’s earned it or deemed unfit in the eyes of others.
Hill crafts his story in a way that allows the reader to witness character transformations, while eventually understanding motivations behind decisions being made. As you follow along Mark’s path as a potential leader, kidnapped FBI Agent Bremble must also make some difficult choices as he searches for answers surrounding Eden. Both characters are essential to this story, while their demeanor takes opposite paths. One is calm, calculated, and disliked by those he’s meant to lead, while the other is vulgar, loud, and revered by those he hates.
Artist Isaac Goodhart and colorist K. Michael Russell collaborate on the artwork as both characters parallel similar environments. They eventually find themselves in dark prison cells, albeit different locations, with shadows cascading over their faces, while flickers of light reflect off surfaces, enhancing the darkness. Violent sequences show the possible consequences for missteps, as gun blasts and blood spatter embellish a wild west mentality by those involved with Eden. The imagery allows you to fully understand the life surrounding the main characters, while also realizing the town name isn’t anything like a garden paradise.
In addition to a good story, you can pick up in the middle, since this trade collects issues 17 through 20. You also get a sneak peek at a new comic book hitting stores in October 2017. GOLGOTHA already grabs your attention with the first chapter, and the science fiction tale can’t get here soon enough. The initial look describes an “attempt to create the first human mining colony beyond Earth,” which will take 80 years to reach the distant planet. The creators include Postal’s Hill and Matt Hawkins and artists Yuki Saeki and Bryan Valenza, and they give readers every reason to pre-order a series that extends human imagination and showcases how quickly technology leads us to faraway places. A bio and picture help to establish each member of the space-faring crew, while a deeper look is taken into the past of one of the characters.
Difficult choices parallel both Postal and GOLGOTHA, and the end of each story will extend your curiosity, wondering where the characters will go after finding themselves in life-and-death situations, because surviving one day doesn’t seem to matter for the next.
Postal Volume 5, a product of Top Cow Productions and Image Comics, is now available in print and digital form.
