Wonder Is A Powerful Thing — Reviewing ‘Miss Truesdale And The Rise of Man’ #2

Welcome to the table,

Wonder is a powerful thing. When I was in elementary school, I was not allowed to do a lot of things the other kids could do. While they were able to run around in the gym, or go on neighborhood walks, or scoot around on those little seats with wheels, I was shuffled off to the backstage area of the school auditorium. That’s where I met with a physical therapist to do really uncomfortable exercises that made me shaky and exhausted for the rest of the day.

It was unpleasant and alienating. I was already struggling with messaging from home that I was weird and broken compared to other humans. The kids at school were not the kindest. There was physical abuse and the pushing me down the stairs and such. An additional thing that I had to do that cut me from the proverbial herd made me a pretty sad little kid.

This changed when the physical therapist originally assigned to me was reassigned, and a new physical therapist came to work with me. She was talkative and bubbly. As most adults did with little boys, she tried to relate to me through the lens of sports and cars. I, however, was not really into those things. My biggest fascinations were things like how Eternia had both science and sorcery, and how that worked together with magic.

Rather than brush me off or sit there in silence while she bent and twisted an eight-year-old into uncomfortable shakes while his neurological system made his legs shake uncontrollably in defiance, she switched gears and started to talk to me about mythology and folklore. Most notably, Edith Hamilton‘s Mythology.

I was instantly locked in. Stories of Greek and Norse gods were fascinating to me. I was instantly able to push through the pain because I was transfixed with wonder by stories of gods and monsters. Physical Therapy stopped being as awful because I knew that, at the very least, I would be able to learn more about or discuss the lore and legends that held such wonder for me.

Eventually,  after a year or two, she moved on. Before she left, she gifted me with a well-worn paperback copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology that she had been given before she started college by her father. It’s to this day one of my most treasured books, and I return to it from time to time to remember the small windows of good from that time in my life.

I tell you that to tell you this: that same level of wonder that cut through the darkness and gloom, that is what I feel when I read Dark Horse Comics’ Miss Truesdale and the Rise of Man.

The first issue was something special. The first story arc, Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea,  was honestly one of my favorite comics of all time, but issue two of Miss Truesdale and the Rise of Man feels in some way like a lost manuscript or some bit of forbidden lore in a mythology that does not make me feel less than or judged.

Jesse Lonergan‘s art is nothing short of extraordinary in this book. There are moments where timelines and stories overlap with moments in the past echoing moments in the future. It is done so seamlessly and with such artistic care that it should be taught in art school.

I’m saying this as someone who went to art school. I can’t get over how brilliantly the panels on these pages are composed. There is a time distortion element that boggles my mind at work here, and even if you are not normally one to read stories set in the same landscape that Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. exist within, this is the kind of thing comic enthusiasts and artists can appreciate, as it is truly a thing of actual wonder.

I don’t honestly know if I have seen anyone do this in this way, and it works so well that it feels like something new and exciting.

The story Mike Mignola has crafted is also such a brilliant addition to the landscape. The second fallen angel that crashes to earth lands in the sea and transforms into one of the people of the sea. The merfolk it becomes sees Anum Yassa, the past version of Miss Truesdale, and goes on the attack.

It gets really wild because the ‘merfolk’ are the merfolk during the time of Anum Yassa, and the Bog Roohs from Hellboys time, and the time of Frankenstine The New World, and seemingly all of time simultaneously.

One entity with the consciousness and mind of multiple times, something that Anum Yassa and Miss Truesdale share in a strange sort of time-bending way. The Bog Roosh is one of my favorite entities in this mythos, and seeing them appear in this way is such a fantastic addition to their story.

What gets even more wild is that we see visions of Hellboy overlapped in time with Anum Yassa as the conflict continues across the pages in some of the most brilliant panel work I have ever seen.

Clem Robins, as always, deserves recognition because Robins is out here lettering these pages in a way that only he can. Clem Robins is my letterer of the year for 2025 and based on the books I have seen so far in 2026, he is going to be my letterer of the year for 2026 as well.

I can’t tell you what the next issue is going to bring. What I can tell you is that Miss Truesdale and the Rise of Man is full of wonder. Each page turn redefines visual storytelling and lore into something that is nothing short of timeless and worthy of study for years to come.

Until next time, I really don’t know how this book works. I’m not saying it should not work; I’m saying reading this comic makes me feel like I’m looking at actual magic.

I feel like I’m looking at something so far beyond my understanding, it’s like a Bronze Age blacksmith looking upon teleportation or a hard light hologram. It’s like watching a really amazing animated film for the first time, or seeing Francisco Goya’s Witches’ Sabbath in person. There is something so special happening in this comic, and the fact that we can just buy it as a PDF or off the shelf at a comic shop for less than the cost of a cheeseburger defies logic to me.

This issue made me actually cry. One of those weird cries where you are not sad. You are just so overwhelmed and your eyes start to water. There are colors in play on this cover, and blocks of black that blend together, and it’s just… overwhelming.