Dirty Work At The Crossroads #5 is a comic written by Joshua Metzger with art by Carlos Nieto and colors by Luis Antonio Delgado. The tension between The Mother and Queen Mab comes to a head when battle lines are drawn. This is a dystopian futuristic science fiction comic with heavy violence, royal drama, and large mutated creatures. The leading lady here is Sunday Childs, she is a mercenary and a skilled fighter who has gotten caught up in the conflict between two opposing rulers after a shady deal gone wrong. She has a short temper and she is very irritated and angry about the predicament she’s in. The Mother is the long-tenured ruler of the major city on this planet and Queen Mab is the upstart ruler of the outcasts beyond the city gates. Some of the other characters are Sunday’s father who owns a shop and an angry and formidable executioner who is determined to finish his last job. This story begins with Queen Mab and her many troops marching through the town and rousing support for an attack on The Mother. The perspective then changes to The Mother and her men as they discuss the impending attack and Sunday Childs’ fate. This takes place on a planet colonized by humans with monsters and mutants they genetically created. The violence here is full of gruesome and bloody attacks that lead to gore. The pacing is overall steady with some speedier moments during the battle. This has the tone of a dystopic-like movie climax and ending. This is very violently intense with dramatic bits mixed in. The dialogue is conversational and aggressive with decent back-and-forth and a modern talking style. There are no word-heavy pages here though a couple get close. This is the riveting final issue in a series that has many characters with opposing motivations, bloody violence, and drama between rulers on a strange planet.
The art here is drawn in a detailed in a modern style with well-done lighting and shading. The color palette is very post-apocalyptic with a lot of browns and grays with even the more vibrant tones being a bit faded. For natural scenery there is dry and rocky terrain along with distant sandy dunes. The main location is the battlefield which is just outside the walls of the city, but there are a couple of other places these characters will pass through. Backgrounds show the actual surroundings more often than not but occasionally it’ll be a gradient color, usually with action lines. The expression level here is around average as most of these characters have tough exteriors and subdued reactions. Emotions seen frequently here are anger and rage with the occasional look of shock and fear. The faces have a decent to above-average amount of detail which results in the different expressions being clear. Weapons used here include firearms, swords, axes, spears, and hammers. The violence here is very gruesome with many attacks leading to a significant amount of blood and strong gore. There is really just one long action scene with breaks in-between. The perspectives are constantly changing, there is a high panel count, and the flow is smooth.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like dystopian futuristic science fiction stories that star mainly women and that feature heavy violence, royal drama, and that has a post-apocalyptic feel then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gruesomeness, gore, implied nudity.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“What’d I tell you? Shoulda let me handle it.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1866329195/babylon-working-5/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
*
*
*
*
*
Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 25
Violent Pages: 14, for 56% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 4
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 5
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 4
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 2
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
