Rising Stars: Visitations

Rising Stars: Visitations (2002) J. Michael Straczynski

Published between Power and Fire and Ash, Visitations gives some background stories. The first story, Rising Starts, is a quick history of what caused the specials, an excerpt of Dr Wells’ diary, and the Supreme Court opinion on how the specials were to be treated as children. Plus some lovely artwork.

“Initiations” is a brief look into the tour that the children receive the first day they are sent to their new school. It’s creepy and disturbing–why a clown?

“Special” is a sad tale, of a boy who wanted to be special, not knowing, truly, what it meant. But within that story you also see the start of the conflict between Jerry and Jason.

And the best story–the one that makes the collection worth getting, is “Visitations” which further details the conflict between Jerry and Jason. It’s a wonderful story for many reasons. First and foremost, because it shows the trust and care between the Specials and Doctor Wills in a way that wasn’t quite as clear in the other stories. I very much liked that.

It also shows the start of how things were patched up between Jerry and Jason, which was one of the shakier parts of Born in Fire.

Additionally, the artwork for “Visitations” is really wonderful. Absolutely fantastic. The reds and oranges and yellows of Jerry when he’s on fire are gorgeous–I can’t help but stare at them. Plus the story of course. The idea of how Jerry ended up the “bad guy” of the group. Something else that was missing from the stories.

So, I particularly liked the first and the last stories–they made were wonderful and make this collection of four stories well worth having.
Rating: 8/10

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