The ‘Bitter Root’ Summer Special Fleshes Out its Rich World

Writers: Brown, Walker / Artists: Greene, Miwa, Weber, Fitzpatrick, Lish, Brunner, Renzi, Randolph, Herms, Smith, George / Image Comics It’s the middle of the summer, the sun is out, and the heat is inescapable. The universe is telling us to get up and get out, run through some sprinklers, put that hair up. But wait, the Bitter Root Red Summer Special is here! We can’t just leave the house, we’ve gotta read this now! Well, I guess we could read it outside. Yeah, let’s do that. This over-sized special features six short stories, ranging from Ma Etta’s liberation from bondage to learning why Berg has such an endless vocabulary. The cliffhanger from the end of the last arc is even addressed as we’re given more context as to where Cullen went, and how important his role is going to be in the future of the series. Long story short, this issue brought that heat, and you need it in your life right now. If you’ve read the first arc of the series and wanted to know more about the characters and their history, this is the issue you need to pick up. 

From Walker and Brown’s perspective, it’s a logistical feat to juggle different artists and colorers for stories that are only a few pages long, but they really succeeded in a way where everything fits together really well. Each of these artists were perfect for their story, and it was really dope to see these characters through the prism of other artists eyes. 

Some of my favorite stories were Red Summer and Barzakh. The first takes plac…