Love and Rockets #40
By Los Bros Hernandez
Every single issue of the Hernandez brothers' Love and Rockets is a little gem of comics perfection, but as impossible as it might seem, some issues are still more perfect than others.
The 40th issue of Love and Rockets from 1993 marks the beginning of the end for the original series, with the characters in both Jaime and Beto's stories weighed down by understandable melancholia, having dealt with recent deaths and heartbreaks.
In Chester Square, Maggie is trapped in a tiny desert community, and it's the first time we've really seen her since the death of Speedy, (and we won't see her immediate aftermath of that shocker for many years to come). The land is wide and open around the motel she has ended up at, but she can't get away - not from the weird assumptions from other people about what she is doing there; or the crushing guilt she feels over her own actions; or the actual physical place.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the comic, it's a different story altogether. Luba has crawled her way out of the lusts and violence that have defined her life so far, and in the final chapter of Poison River finds a home in Palomar, and a family to care for, and protect with such fierceness that can only lead to more heartbreak down the line.
Both artists had been subtly evolving through the first few years of the magazines, and by this stage have reached a level of brilliance that has been maintained ever since, Their stories will never be more emotional and complex, but will frequently reach these heights again, while their illustrations are wonderful - Maggie getting in awkward catfights, the long desert shadows creating menace, the final happy dance and embrace in Berto's story
Plus there are some Mario comics in there, and Love and Rockets comics are always better with a little wild Mario in the mix. Some issues do still stand out.
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