
Volume 6 of the printed chronicles of Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius, picks up from where volume 5 left off, with the revelation that Agatha’s mind has been taken over by that of her mother, Lucretia, who is revealed to be The Other – the cause of the greatest war of recent memory. This volume deals with the attempts of Agatha to break free of her mother, the machinations of Prince Tarvek and his sister to overthrow Baron Wulfenbach and the attempts of Agatha’s friends to rescue her.
Despite an awful lot going on at any given time, the narrative never feels overwhelming, and all the threads dovetail nicely. As I’ve said before, I find these graphic novels much easier to read and absorb than the page-at-a-time webcomic (not that it stops me reading that as well) particularly when there are multiple threads going on and with an ever-growing cast of characters.
The story remains enthralling, the art is beautiful and fits the steampunk nature of the story perfectly. I look forward to future instalments of Agatha’s story.