Into the Unbeing #2 is three inside a body.

[thanekos]

Issue #1'd been them and their leader Hildur finding the body in Australia's Gibson Desert.

They'd made camp outside a cave that was clearly a mouth on a face - Hildur, driven by her own motivations, apparently entered on her own in the night.

The next morning, her three subordinates in the Scientific Institute for Nascent Ecology and Worlds - Zara the Geologist, Abby the Surveyor, and Selva the Entomologist - plus her dog Galko went in after her.





What was up there was superseded in Zara's perception by her understanding of the rumbling: ' Cave in. '

She ran back to Abby and Selva.



" Come on! "



They crawled through the tightness, coming out somewhere Selva noticed " carrion beetles " on the fleshy walls.

" .. what kinda cave decomposes? "



Selva nursed her thumb: " The hell did ya learn that? "

" Military. "

Abby offered a theory: " Perhaps we're inside a massive whalefall.. "



(The orifice with the hairs behind them is the opening of an ear canal.

The wind's the sandstorm from the end of #1.)

Inward they went, Zara thinking about her past service.



Kneeling in the oil spill around Louisiana, she'd seen a fish.



' There's nothing wrong with admitting it.

' There's nothing wrong with me. '

Zara led them on into a space that felt like the inside of " a.. skull " to her.

" The ground feels-



" Hildur? "

It wasn't her.

" Damn. He looks ancient. "



In camp, Zara secretly examined a journal found amongst the climber's effects.



She read an entry of Harold Crichton's.



' This is why they want me to sabotage everything. '



' Nobody will question a lone survivor. '

Before she could dispose of the others, ominous rumbling came again.

She had a chance to be a lone survivor, and she didn't take it:



They followed her up - the question of why she so quickly responded to the rumbling deflected.

Down the spine, Abby lagged behind.



" There's a clearing up ahead. " Selva noticed. " It looks safe! "

(Galko's in her arms.)

Zara grabbed Abby and joined Selva there.



(Pagecount's 8 and a little more than a half of 26 from July 2024's Into the Unbeing: Part One #2.

Writing's Zac Thompson, art's Hayden Sherman, and letters're Jim Campbell.

Publisher's Dark Horse.)

Comments

[huntleyhaverstock]

The premise is nifty enough, and the art's cool and well-suited to the story. But I find that the characters' credulity robs this of a lot of its potential power. It's very clear to us where the characters are, and we have essentially the same info they do. So when they're not immediately thinking "I am in the corpse of some vast once-living being," I kinda feel like they're annoyingly dumb?