Image Comics; $3.99 

If you’re tired of me raving about the quality of the comics writer Geoff Johns and company at Ghost Machine are producing, you can probably skip this review because they simply keep delivering comics that make me want to turn the page… and that’s the only one, true test of a good (or great) comic book.  

Both in the pages of Rook: Exodus and Geiger, Johns has created worlds that demand to be explored. Rook, for its part, is actual science fiction in an industry that typically uses science fiction to disguise what turns out to be just more superhero material. Geiger, a complex take on a post-apocalyptic world, offers a gripping, urgent mix of humanity, desperation, powerful beings, and hope set against the backdrop of a devastated world and the mystery of what made it that way. 

Geiger #19 puts a spotlight on one of the recurring characters, The Glowing Woman, Ashley Arden, another person seemingly afflicted in a similar fashion to Tariq Geiger. As we’ve seen in her appearances to date, she has a very different demeanor than Geiger, and she definitely has her own agenda. This story demonstrates that and offers insight as to how she got that way. 

Johns, artist Gary Frank, and colorist Brad Anderson pack a lot of story into this issue, and it also – in truly compelling fashion – sets up next issue’s debut of The Northerner, another key figure in the story of The Unnamed. 

– J.C. Vaughn