THE SACRIFICERS #16 – New Comic Review

The Sacrificers #16, by Image Comics on 10/8/25, hits shelves with more fire than a sun god’s tantrum and enough emotional carnage to fuel a dozen ruined kingdoms.

Credits:

• Writer: Rick Remender
• Artist: Max Fiumara
• Colorist: Dave McCaig
• Letterer: Rus Wooton
• Cover Artist: Max Fiumara (cover A)
• Publisher: Image Comics
• Release Date: October 8, 2025
• Comic Rating: Teen
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Page Count: 32
• Format: Single Issue

Covers:

Analysis of THE SACRIFICERS #16:

First Impressions:

This issue greets readers like a blast furnace with shock and awe right out the gate. Every panel crackles with tension, the art simmering with dread and desperation. Rarely has burning down the status quo looked this gorgeously catastrophic.

Recap:

Previously, the gods of Harlos clung to youth by draining joy and blood from children, calling it mercy; mortals called it slaughter. Pigeon, a blue-feathered Sacrificer battered by fate, stole Soluna’s power and escaped, while Soluna herself ended up cursed and mortal, dragging a spore’s devastation in her wake. Rokos, the Sun God, burned half the world avenging his daughter, whom he assumed dead, while alliances crumbled and Kronious rose up beside Pigeon to defy his tyrant brother. Soluna and Beatrice barely escaped with a band of children before the world, and their hopes, were set alight.

Plot Analysis:

Soluna, powerless and burdened by the lives of the Sacrificer children, is trapped with them in a burning landscape as her father’s wrathful inferno closes in. She scrambles for refuge, only to discover that fire can find every hiding place and mercy is in short supply. As the flames seem about to consume them, the inky parasite servant of Lord Fniff tries, and spectacularly fails, to save Soluna with its own sacrifice, hinting at treachery even among allies.​

The carnage outside mirrors a storm of chaos as gods finally clash. Rokos’s fire war meets Kronious’s stubborn labor, and the battlefield is less a field than an apocalypse. Beatrice tries to save her brother, Pigeon, as the gods’ brawl makes it clear that every child’s trauma was only a prelude to celestial brutality. Pigeon, meanwhile, is consumed by his own anger and memories; his transformation from abused child to vengeful force is as much about the scars left behind as the powers he’s gained.​

Amid roaring violence, guilt, and betrayal bubble up. The once-mighty gods hurl accusations and molten death, but much of the conflict is personal: Kronious’ resentment against Rokos’s tyranny, Soluna’s pain at her father’s cruelty, and Pigeon’s inability to heal old wounds. Each character is stripped raw, left reeling between survival, vengeance, and the eternal lie of mercy.​

The issue closes on choices: Soluna must confront whether to reclaim her godhood or pave a new, mortal path. Rokos pleads for forgiveness while clinging to power, and Pigeon, broken and relentless, decides that suffering for a noble cause means little if sacrifice is always the price. As the dust clears (momentarily), everyone is left grasping for meaning amid ruins.

Story

Rick Remender’s script is an unflinching punch to the gut. Dialogue in this issue never treads water; characters speak in bitter truths and scalding regret—there’s no room for filler when your world’s ablaze. The pacing is tight, the narration alternates between mythic grandeur and intimate pain, and the transitions between action and introspection refuse to coddle. The issue tackles heavy themes such as legacy, power, and family trauma without resorting to lecture or melodrama. The structure reads like a fever dream that, miraculously, makes perfect sense once it’s over.

Art

Max Fiumara renders apocalyptic misery with a jaw-dropping sense of scale and detail, helped by Dave McCaig’s color work that shifts from infernal orange to bruised blues and sickly greens. Panels bristle with kinetic energy; action scenes explode while quieter moments simmer with dread. Character expressions do half the storytelling: fear, defiance, exhaustion, and fleeting hope are painted with surgical precision. No panel feels wasted; everything smolders.

Characters

Soluna and Pigeon are the mosaic shards of shattered hope; Beatrice is both innocent and doggedly loyal, while the gods themselves loom as tragic, foolish, and terrifying. The supporting cast, especially the traumatized Sacrificers, are not window dressing. They remind us constantly what’s at stake. Kronious’s showdown with Rokos gives godly conflict a dirty, human edge, and each character’s choices and pain drive the story with ruthless efficiency.

Positives

The Sacrificers #16 is a master class in escalation. Every shred of hope is won—or lost—by characters we feel for, even as the wider world falls apart. Stark visual storytelling pairs with writing that shocks, aches, and occasionally, slyly winks at the reader’s horror fatigue. There are no safe spaces here, and the few moments of mercy land because they’re so staggeringly rare.

Negatives

If nuance had a nemesis, it would be this issue’s relentless despair. Readers looking for clear answers or gentle pacing get none; instead, scenes lurch from devastation to devastation until exhaustion feels intentional. Occasionally, the mythic dialogue teeters on overwrought, and there’s scarcely a moment to breathe between cataclysms. Sometimes, less is more, and Remender hasn’t met a horror he can’t top.

Art Samples:

Final Thoughts:

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THE SACRIFICERS #16 doesn’t ask if you can handle pain; it assumes you’re here for it, douses you in gasoline, and hands you a match. This is not a comic for fainthearted optimists. Remender and Fiumara build nightmares that burn their way into memory and somehow dazzle while doing it. If suffering forged diamonds, this story would bankrupt the mines.

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