GFT Retrospective #94: The Gates Of Limbo
a.k.a. The Ticketmaster.
How low can you go, Ticketholders‽
Not low enough to accept bribes from Middle Eastern heads of state because a dead golfer said it was okay, or try to monopolize the American intellectual property protection system to satisfy a grudge, I hope.
As a country, we need to raise the bar like we're lifting the whole liquor counter up (to quote the great poet Mathers—no relation) so that we can prove our way out of this eternal middle ground of Hell before we sin and sink any lower.
Thus concludes today's mix of topical commentary and limbo puns, so let's talk about The Gates Of Limbo.
As I usually do with these reviews, I Googled "gates of limbo" to see if there were any fairy tales or folklore with that as a title or plot point. The top five results were Doom-related (fitting, considering what the majority of Dark Horde fodder combatants look like), with the Gemini summary and subsequent results pointing to Dante Allighieri's The Inferno (where Dante designates Limbo as the first circle of Hell, a fairly nice circle that is Heaven-ish but not actual Heaven, assigned to non-Christians and the unbaptized, which is probably the nicest that any non-Papal Christian in history not named Jesus has ever been to such a population). Another particularly interesting result was J.T. McIntosh's Six Gates From Limbo, a religious-themed science-fiction novel from the 60s that turns the Adam & Eve story into a human guinea pig bottle episode kind of thing.
So, not much to the comparative analysis this week aside from more of Zenescope redefining their cosmic architecture (which I will get to shortly), but I enjoy finding this stuff and sharing it with you all.
GFT #66: The Gates Of Limbo
Art: Rick Ross (no, not that one), J.L. Giles-Rivera (Jurassic Strike Force 5), Jason Embury, Eddy Swan (Dream Eater Saga #12).
Ross' cameo-esque, heavily shadowed but simple style looks so beautiful and epic, and Giles-Rivera brings menace and detail to the villain-focused panels, both artists' work further enhanced by Embury and Swan's coloring. The use of the artists' distinct styles to literally illustrate hero and villain perspective theming is brilliant.
I'm not a big fan of the covers this week despite the names behind them. It's a case of the art being ugly (Yang's cover makes Sela look like a drag queen who doesn't know how to put on makeup, and the Qualano/Parvanov art is really over-defined) or fanservice (Moore's Naughty/Nice Christmas exclusives look good for multiple reasons, but are just empty smut otherwise). Surprisingly, Mike DeBalfo is the positive standout here, with his cover of Sela waiting for a train. It's up to his usual drawing standard but doesn't entirely look like his style and is more tasteful than his other work, and Nivangune's colors bring it to life.
That's the basic plot of the issue, but there's much more to delve into regarding the series' worldbuilding, cosmology, and foreshadowing of future events.
On departing, Sela and Druanna share farewells with the newly crowned King Of Tallus, Jorgan, the greedy, sleepy-eyed cousin of the late King Wilhelm (whom Orcus killed at the end of Volume Ten). And because no country is ever allowed stability for long (in fiction, of course) and the writers can't decide if Sela is a righteous heroine driven to action at the merest mention of suffering or a selfish, hyper-focused simp who will do anything to save her man, she decides that the plight of Tallus (a strategically positioned kingdom that was almost subjugated and stripped of its resources by an army of monsters before their greatest king ever was assassinated and succeeded by his greedy cousin) is no longer her problem. I swear she was the voice of reason in a previous issue where a peasant woman in Myst said the Dark One should just take Earth and leave her Realm alone, but whatever motivates our "heroine," I guess....
After bitch-slapping Sela with a taste of the Uncle Ben speech, Druanna also lets slip that Limbo is a Realm, or more properly (because adding hierarchy is the best, or at least, the most Dragon Ball, way to retcon your cosmology without contradicting it) a sub-Realm. So that explains why places like the Inner Sanctum Of the Nexus, the Inferno, and Epilogue exist separately from the Nexus and the Realms Of Power. Each of the five Realms has its own Limbo, and it's unclear which goes by what name, if the Inferno is a Limbo, or if the terminology is interchangeable, but Druanna mentions Hell and Hades (which connects back to the Greco-Roman pantheon that we've seen so far with Venus and Ares, and will be important for a long time going forward), and that each Limbo sub-Realm operates according to the whim of its ruler.
This segues into talk of Alicia, the current Limbo Queen, that I will take as light confirmation of her being Acacia from the Sinbad Crossover (plus the scantily clad design, pale skin, and dark 80s hair).
But my memory and speculation skills are far from perfect, because we also learn here that Alicia did not encounter Jack until after she had already usurped the throne from Morrigan, and that Jack became her lieutenant after she somehow freed him from his obligation to the Horde, potentially meaning that Alicia is not in league with the Dark One and never was.
Who she is in league with, though, has a ton of cool implications because in addition to the Goblin Queen and Jack, we learn here that Baba Yaga has aligned with her, too. Now calling herself Malice, Baba Yaga mentions that they met mere weeks ago...but a millennium has passed from Alicia's perspective. And Baba Yaga stole something from her at the time. That sounds like another Acacia confirmation to me!
Also, while Alicia sends Jack and a manageable contingent of small, dragon-like monsters to test the main duo, she incentivizes Baba Yaga to join a "party" that, if I remember correctly, will turn out to be the titular Bad Girls of a future miniseries.
Before Sela and Druanna are attacked, though, it's time to draw attention to Sela's sword that she's apparently been carrying around since Nyssa forged it in Hard Choices, and to the fact that Sela's power (which had been growing uncontrollably during her time trapped in Myst) is comprised of different types of energy. We've seen the variety of things she can do and the different colors of her energy in past issues, so it's kind of easy to figure out if you've been paying attention, but if you haven't, it will come up again later, whether or not they end up visiting the master blacksmith who works at the exposition dump.
Have I mentioned how much I like talking and speculating about this stuff? Well, I'm not going to stop saying it as long as Zenescope keeps giving me something to say, so I look forward to that still happening. And I'd really like it if you folks ever remember to Become A Ticketholder because I know you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, help out my ad revenue as you read so I don't have to pawn my magic ring to escape from Limbo, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my bar-raising content.
Ticketmaster,
Out.
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