Aâma #4

The fourth and final volume of Frederik Peeters's extraordinary science-fiction series arrives with a cover that stops you cold: a human figure almost unrecognizable beneath an explosive overgrowth of alien flora and fauna — vivid purples, pinks, and greens erupting across a dark bodysuit while strange small creatures cling to every limb, and antler-like branches crowned with colorful organisms burst from the head. The figure looms within a rocky, cavernous landscape, arms outstretched, expression caught somewhere between awe and anguish. Subtitled "Tu seras merveilleuse, ma fille" ("You will be wonderful, my daughter"), this concluding chapter of Aâma promises the kind of visceral, visionary imagery that has made Peeters's wholly creator-owned series one of the more genuinely ambitious European sci-fi works of the 2010s.