Editor's Desk 
When Rook: Exodus #11 begins, things are looking up for Rook and his fellow Wardens. They’ve finally managed to free Bloodhound from his helmet, bringing him back to his senses and also reuniting Dire Wolf with her father. Bloodhound regaining his senses also means that he can finally fix Exodus’s World Engine and prevent the planet from falling apart. There’s just one little problem: the warden Arachnid is still hell-bent on killing all of them. Rook soon discovers that, like Bloodhound, Arachnid might have succumbed to his darker nature.
Part of the appeal of Rook: Exodus, other than its “Mad Max meets Kamen Rider” aesthetic, is that the helmets the Wardens wear can overload their minds with animal instincts. Bloodhound is proof of that, as his helmet slowly turned him into a feral being. Rook himself eventually encounters this, as his helmet is briefly damaged. Geoff Johns’ script ping-pongs between Rook’s more calm thoughts and the more frantic thoughts of his flock. Phrases like “sky gone” and “no lift” echo through Rook’s head, given the scattered, frantic feel of birds in flight by Rob Leigh’s lettering.
Johns also uses this battle between man and nature as the keystone of Rook: Exodus #11. Though Bloodhound is free, the warden Stag wants to kill him as revenge for Bloodhound mauling his wife. It’s Rook who ends up being the voice of reason, as he gathers the other wardens to help free Arachnid and save Exodus. It’s a far cry from the first story arc where Rook wanted nothing more than to get off the planet and mostly kept to himself. But it shows how much he’s grown as a character, and makes me excited for future issues.
Image
You can’t discuss Rook: Exodus without discussing Jason Fabok’s artwork, and Fabok more than delivers on every aspect. He captures plenty of emotion through body language, whether it’s Stag angrily pointy or Rook grabbing frantically at his damaged helmet; considering most of the characters are wearing helmets that fully cover their face, that’s impressive. The action is just as intense, with a massive page featuring Arachnid bursting through the wall. It also turns out that the massive spider chassis his body is hooked up to features massive machine guns, leading to another splash page where the Wardens dive for cover. It’s an image that deserves to be made as a poster.
Fabok doesn’t shy away from the horror elements either, especially where Arachnid is concerned. When his helmet is finally taken off, it’s revealed that he succumbed to a fate far worse than Bloodhound’s – and Fabok delivers images that will haunt readers for a good while. It also heightens the stakes, especially as Arachnid is more or less being puppeteered by his spiders. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait for roughly three months as the finale is being released in December. This momentum is the one hump that Rook: Exodus hasn’t cleared; while I understand it takes time for Fabok to deliver his art, this shows that Johns is spreading himself thin with all the Ghost Machine titles he’s writing.
Rook: Exodus #11 displays the ongoing battle between man and nature, and continues to up the horror vibes. While it might take a while for that conclusion to bear fruit, it looks like it’ll be worth the wait.
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