THE RISE OF AURORA WEST

Before Battling Boy came to slay the monsters of Arcopolis, Aurora West sought out the monsters that terrorized her city and killed her mother.

Growing up in the shadow of her renowned and heroic father, Haggard West, Aurora is well-aware of the scourge of monsters that have been kidnapping children from Acropolis. Under her father’s tutelage, she has been accompanying him on his nightly patrols. One night, she discovers a mysterious yet oddly familiar symbol. Her investigation leads her back to the one mystery her father could never solve and nearly drove him mad: the murder of her mother. Could Aurora hold the key to unlocking this puzzle? Fans of Pope’s earlier Battling Boy (2013) may be caught a bit off guard with this new offering; the art is done in black and white and drawn by Rubín, not Pope himself. Rubín’s art, however, has enough of Pope’s stylistic feel to give the two books series cohesion. Those looking for answers from this or Battling Boy will have to wait a bit longer; as the story progresses, only more questions are raised. This feels like a very different direction for the characters, and it’s a thrilling one; expect readers to clamor for the next installments of this clever spinoff.

Markedly different than its predecessor but a worthy tale nonetheless.