Writer: Rick Remender / Penciller: André Lima Araújo / Colour Artist: Chris O'Halloran / Letterer: Rus Wooton / Collects A Righteous Thirst For Vengeance #1-#5 (2021 - 2022) / SC / Image Comics
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6th July 2022 (Released: 16th March 2022)
The Pitch: When an unassuming man stumbles upon a dark-web contract assassin's vicious plot to kill an innocent target, he turns himself into one. The Professional meets Road to Perdition in this story of a family's unlikely guardian being hunted by rich and powerful men who are used to getting away with everything. Join New York Times bestselling writer Rick Remender (Deadly Class, Black Science) and André Lima Araújo (Generation Gone, Man Plus) for a uniquely atmospheric murder mystery with sudden bouts of brutal violence.
The music of chance does not always play a whimsical tune. Sometimes it beats a warning drum.
There's a weirdly easy-going feel to this book. Anyone familiar with the hyper-active manga stylings of Deadly Class and filthy screaming war cry of The Scumbag may be surprised by this latest work written by Rick Remender. It doesn't have the electric, frenetic pacing of those books and in fact, given the dialogue of those comics, feels almost antithetical to it. Instead, it creates a different type of mood and pace, one which may frustrate initially, but pays dividends if you stick with it. We have to address the elephant in the room, the criticism levelled at the book in many reviews already: There are parts of the story that are, as yet, unclear.
But the key thing here is: as yet.
Sonny, our lead character is as unlikely a hero as most other Remender characters. He's a heavy-set, smoking, wet shambles of a man, but not as the opening scenes remind us, without compassion. Essentially, he's the good man in the bad world. But how bad is that world really? Well, as shitty as you think things are, people are always willing to prove it can get worse.
it becomes an experiment in mood and feel. It gives up nothing via exposition, instead giving you characters, dialogue, and setting... essentially giving you evidence to build the case in your head.
Sonny seems to be working undercover, posing as a hitman, dipping into the dark web to pick up 'jobs'. By chance, he quite literally bumps into the real assassin – who later murders two people in Sonny's care. He begins a mission of revenge and protection, trying to get to the next victim on the hit list before the real assassin does. Thirst is a book in hiding. It doesn't want to reveal itself, not even by the end of the first arc. In that way, it becomes an experiment in mood and feel. It gives up nothing via exposition, instead giving you characters, dialogue, and setting... essentially giving you evidence to build the case in your head. It makes it tougher, sure. But I suspect will come to light. We just won't get a big exposition dump common to many other comics. In that respect, Thirst feels more like the existentialist crime films of Melville, Michael Mann or I Saw The Devil. There's the sense that horrible things just happen and that then it's the characters that become engines of causality. Thirst is shorn of context and causality and places you firmly in the aftermath, the consequence.
remender gets Sonny's compassion and heart across despite the things he witnesses and does.
Remender crafts a thriller that feels meandering, and decompressed, yet is actually quite taut and lean. There is strictly only the information you need, peppered with David Mamet-Esque speech and elliptical moments. He gets Sonny's compassion and heart across despite the things he witnesses and does. Remender gives us characters who are aware of who they really are and what they are willing to do – save perhaps for Sonny. And these characters are unrepentant. It's a great stance to take in modern comics. Araújo's line is detailed, fine. He etches the details of faces beautifully. Their expressions are realistic, and alive, even as they die. He gives care and attention to dark things. O'Halloran's colour scheme is real and realistic, choosing only in key moments to heighten the emotion with more vibrancy. Wooton's letters punch out Remender's dialogue nicely, letting it flow at exactly the right pace. A Righteous Thirst For Vengeance is the type of carefully paced mystery you don't see often enough nowadays, maybe because of the bad places it takes us to might be too much for us. Let's go there anyway.
Buy the first five issues here and support The Comic Crush. Buy the trade paperback from Gosh Comics.