by Spencer Irwin
This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!
The Injection’s original purpose was to add some mystery and magic to a boring, mundane world. One could argue whether that’s a good or bad thing all day, but what can’t be denied is that it worked — the world of Injection is far stranger than it was before our protagonists’ original efforts. It takes a special kind of person to not only appreciate that, but to face it head on, and Brigid’s assistant Emma is certainly one of those people.
Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire throw readers into the deep end from the very first page, opening the issue with a burst of otherworldly spectral energy that only overwhelms each page more and more as Brigid and Emma get closer to its epicenter. I love the way this creative team brings the power of the “Spriggin Town” to life — a simple lack of color is immensely effective, making their force a stark contrast to quite literally everything else on the page.
This calls back to the tremendous work this same creative team did on Moon Knight a few years ago, where Moon Knight’s white uniform not only made him stand out as something different, but often bled directly into the gutter. Notably, though, throughout this confrontation in Injection 15 the gutters are black instead of white — not only is the Spriggin’s power foreign to the events within the panel, but to the very forces that make comics work in the gutter as well. This strange force is something that just does not belong, plain and simple.
That certainly freaks Emma out, but she follows Brigid’s commands without question nonetheless. Not only that, but she does so with a smile on her face. She’s exactly the kind of person Brigid and her allies could use on their side.
This invitation — to suddenly run off with a mysterious stranger to face the strange — is so out of Doctor Who that Ellis had to acknowledge it. I doubt Emma’s adventures will be as romantic or heartwarming as Rose’s or Amy’s, but like any good companion, she’s certainly proven herself not only capable of facing down the strange, but embracing it. Something tells me she’ll fit in just fine with the rest of Brigid’s crew.
The conversation doesn’t stop there. What do you wanna talk about from this issue?
Retcon Punch 
I immediately felt the Moon Knight visual connection as well. I dig this comic. I have no idea where it’s going.
I think the really big thing about this arc is the parallels between the mystery of the Spriggan Town and of Brigid. It is important to note that only at the very, very end of the comic that we get to see the inside of Brigid’s ‘TARDIS’. It is the payoff of the entire arc. The climax of an Injection arc is always a big moment of showing off how weird the Injection really is. SO the fact that Brigid gets a payoff just as weird is important. Which reflects the comparison between Brigid and the Injection as both forces that are making the future more interesting. And again builds that idea that this arc has sold that Brigid is something a bit different to the rest. Where Maria and Vivek were mere improvements on archetypes, Brigid breaks our assumptions.
I’ll be interested in Brigid and Emma’s future in the rest of the series. Because for the first time, the leads seem to have truly added something. Improved upon things. For the first time, they didn’t just fight the Injection, but they built a new, more interesting future. Because now Brigid has a companion.
Both sides now can change the game