Bigger Than Capes

Writer: John Zuur Platten
Artist: Atilio Rojo
Publisher Top Cow/Image Comics

St. Mercy kicks off in Incan-era Peru, focussing on the practice of capacocha, aka child sacrifice. Cheery. Some young lass seems quite keen on being next.

It then goes to 1870s Arizona, where Mercy is shooting at things. Mercy happens to be of Peruvian descent.

And then there’s a wagon heist, bandits kill almost everyone and leave the rest to die, but one of their own isn’t quite dead and wanders into town to apparently hold the local clergy at gunpoint. Mercy goes to the barn where it transpires and she has a nice gold hat passed down from her ancestors, which is cursed, of course, but may have healing powers? She gets a spade to the head for her troubles, and the bandit lad nicks the cursed gold. I feel like he might be about to have a bad time.

The book abruptly ends, as the girl from earlier and the rest of the potential sacrifices head up to Machu Picchu, presumably for a good old fashioned bludgeoning or the like. Cliffhanger I guess?

The colours change from lush green Peru to Arizona’s earthy orange and brown tones effectively alongside the change from narration to dialogue, which keeps things clear. The art has some nice tricks, such as using strands of hair to separate panels in one section, and the panels are quite inventive, the thin page width shots of eyes during a shoot out being a nice example.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this at first glance. I have to assume the blow to the head hasn’t killed off the title character and cover star Mercy. I also assume they’re not giving us the tale of Incan child sacrifice for it not to be directly related to the 19th-century narrative. I guess I have to keep an eye out for the next one to see what’s actually happening here. If nothing else, I’ll probably learn a bit about the Inca, so I’m calling it educational.