The Super Powered Fancast

Labyrinth Coronation #4

Archaia

Written by Simon Spurrier

Art by Daniel Bayliss & Irene Flores

Colors by Dan Jackson

Letters by Jim Campbell

Sarah continues to make her way deeper into the Labyrinth and we can see that she is starting to gain allies to help her on her way. Jareth continues to watch her progress along with Toby and the goblin who has been taking care of him. The goblin becomes inanely curious and asks the Goblin King a question rife with tension; Where did he get his name?

Thus begins the next part of the story as an army of fairies hauls a ship across the skies above the Labyrinth itself. As Jareth’s mother Maria makes her attempt to escape from the ship’s brig another prisoner is brought in. Skubbin, the “knight” she ran into earlier who has figured out her plan to escape and steal the ship. As she is about to escape, Skubbin discovers that he has a key that could free them. Maria finds herself in a worse state when a giant goblin comes crashing into the brig and the other prisoners are freed to try to help.

As they try to escape, they find a creature in the bowels of the ship that just might be either their destruction or salvation. As the king becomes more and more frustrated at Maria’s determination to get her son back, he decides to try a new tactic. One that brings him in league with the person who is the cause of all of this. I like this moment. It drives home everything we’ve come to hate about Albert and his weakness. It also creates a minor mystery as to what Albert’s role in this story will be going forward. How far will he go to protect himself?

Maria starts to come to a realization. One that the goblin guarding young Toby tries to explain to him. As she continues to her journey, she discovers something that she didn’t see before on her journey. Something that could seriously jeopardize the rest of her journey.

I like this issue, but it wasn’t as strong a narrative as the previous issues. While it did have some great visuals, nothing in the narrative couldn’t have been added to the issue before. The entire vignette on the ship didn’t really seem to go anywhere other than to introduce a new character and it went on a little too long to do that. I still find myself interested in this journey, but I was hoping for something more interesting in this issue.