High Level #4 Review

Writer: Rob Sheridan / Artist: Barnaby Bagenda &  Amancay Nahuelpan / Vertigo (DC) Chapter Four of Rob Sheridan’s cyberpunk odyssey finds protagonist Thirteen on the search for her temporary ward Minow, the “golden child” of the elitist citadel in the sky known as High Level. Since accepting the job to transport the girl, Thirteen’s journey has only grown more dangerous and mysterious. The deaths of Thirteen’s friends, her former lover, and almost anyone connected to the child should be enough to make her simply walk away; at this point, however, Thirteen actually cares for Minow as a person, much more so than the conspiracy theories about “Who is she really?” and “What can she do?” The issue begins with Thirteen betrayed and beaten into unconsciousness by a group of thieves led by her former colleague. She awakens without Minow on a small raft, ferried by Outlanders speaking an ancient tongue.  They reveal to her that Minow was doubly kidnapped, and most likely in the hands of child-traffickers in Pleasure City – a zero tolerance area for violence, harassment, and repression wrapped in a hedonistic, free will, free expression facade.  All violations are punishable by death. BDSM booths, brothels, drug dealers, Furrie Collectives, and white nationalists all have equal freedoms as long as they are nonviolent.  As Minow interrogates one group after the other, she learns that the only way to get any real answers is to speak with the leader of Pleasure City – a mutant known m…