Red Rising: The Sons of Ares Book #4 review
Red Rising: The Sons of Ares is a prequel series to Pierce Brown’s NYTBS Red Rising Series. It will cover the birth of a rebellion and provide backstory of some integral characters from the original trilogy.
Comic: Red Rising: The Sons of Ares
Story by: Pierce Brown
Script by: Rik Hoskin
Art by: Eli Powell
Color by: Jordan Boyd
Image Courtesy Dynamite Comics for Red Rising: The Sons of Ares book 4
Summary
When we last saw Fitchner and his merry band of low-colors, they were running through the tunnels of Mars and Cylax, a Green, noted rather ominously that they were not alone.
Fitchner and co. are attacked by a group known as devourers, something new to this universe. The name obviously implies they eat anyone unlucky enough to come across their path and a fearsome battle ensues. Ryanna is captured by some of the Devourers and Fitchner reflects on her importance to him as he charges after her.
We see snippets of their journey from Triton to Mars, hints of their lives on Mars and meet Fitchner’s new employer, Quicksilver.
Quicksilver is a very important character from the original trilogy. He is a wealthy Silver, with ambitions of being even wealthier. Their relationship gets off to a bit of a rocky start when Fitchner bristles at the prospect of being Quicksilver’s assassin followed by the revelation that Quicksilver knows of his marriage to Bryn.
Fitchner doesn’t take kindly to being blackmailed and nearly kills Quicksilver, though eventually cooler heads prevail.
Image Courtesy Dynamite Comics for Red Rising: The Sons of Ares book 4
Since it is illegal for Fitchner and Bryn to be married, they must lead secret double lives, which grates heavily on Bryn. It appears that Fitchner is too caught up with his life of serving Quicksilver, an affront to The Society in its own right to truly feel the effects of his double love life.
Ryanna and Bryn reflect on the fact that though he was dominant and seemed so large on Triton, on Mars Fitchner is a relatively weak and small Gold.
After Fitchner successfully completes his mission of killing a Gold named Theron Au Aktler, whom he had insulted at a party in order to avoid suspicion, Bryn reveals that she desires a child.
Unfortunately, as part of the caste system of the Society, each Color had been engineered to only have the ability to reproduce with others of their color. However, black market Carvers (like genetic plastic surgeons) have the ability to create such children.
The Carver successfully creates a Golden boy using Bryn and Fitchner’s DNA and Ryanna remarks that the poor baby will look just like his father.
Meanwhile, in the present, Fitchner’s group had fought off the Devourers as he chased after Ryanna.
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Fitchner makes quick work of the Devourers who had taken Ryanna.
Ryanna has a minor leg injury but tells Fitchner not to worry about her, because the Board of Quality Control has taken Bryn and the child.
We then see Arturuis, who had bragged to Fitchner about being a prefect of the Board of Quality control, interrogating Bryn over the parentage of her child.
Final Thoughts
The apparent revelation that Fitchner and his band are going to rescue Bryn blew my mind. I assumed that they were going to engage in some sort of “terrorist” acts. I definitely did not expect them to be on a mission of love.
Based on their text bubbles, I’d speculate that the Devourers are some kind of modified Obsidians that protect the Board of Quality Control, but obviously, I can’t say for sure.
Next: 100 greatest superhero stories
Between the revelation of the true nature of Fitchner’s mission and his backstory ramping up, I absolutely cannot wait to see what The Sons of Ares #5 has in store.