We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #6 Review

Writer: Al Ewing / Artist: Simone Di Meo / Boom! Studios It’s been a veritable minute since we have returned to the vast expanse of autopsy ships and harvesting dead gods for resources, but I am very happy to return back to the universe of We Only Find Them When They’re Dead. The imaginative and vibrant world that Ewing and Di Meo cultivated during the series inaugural arc was some of the most hauntingly beautiful space epics, and the start of the second arc injects even more energy to an already rousing series. The opening pages of We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #6 do a small recap of the coda events of issue 5 hinting at some of the ramifications to come, but it’s mostly just a way for Ewing to remind us how the simple phrase “An autopsy ship with a crew of four” can instill very particular types of stress into a reader’s heart and how phenomenal Di Meo is at illustrating the sheer grandiosity of the world.

The narrative proper of We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #6 actually occurs after a significant time skip, taking us to the year 2414, and presenting us with a new focal point character: Ambassador Marylin Chen. In the fashion of many sequels, Chen stands in stark contrast to Georges Malik. Her composure, more relaxed. Her demeanor, more playful. Her mission, a little more obtuse than Malik’s goal to find a living god. In fact, Chen’s mission is to seek out Malik, which marks a very notable change in the narrative’s pace, but one that fits into the narrative b…