Waverider

The opening chapters of Amulet: Waverider begin by reintroducing Emily Hayes, the protagonist of the series, in the middle of a journey across time and space that pits her against the force now revealed to be the series’ primary antagonist: IKOL. The opening spread pairs the cosmic imagery of Emily shooting through the sky like a comet with meditative dialogue from IKOL describing how “every action creates a ripple in time and space” (1), reverberating beyond one’s own life. This image emphasizes how IKOL manipulates victims by referencing the seed of something true; as Emily flies, energy ripples off her, creating waves that extend beyond her own jet stream. IKOL interprets this responsibility in a negative light, as a burden that could be alleviated by giving into IKOL’s dark worldview. Emily, however, sees through this manipulation tactic. The interaction underscores how much Emily has grown across the series—she is composed, self-aware, and accepting of responsibility—while also placing The Complexity of Autonomy at the heart of the work’s conflict.

Kibuishi visually represents Emily’s rejection of IKOL by showing Emily’s power as a protective, pink bubble around her; as IKOL tries to infiltrate her mind, she physically and metaphorically pushes him out. Kibuishi sets up this running color motif to illustrate one of the novel’s main themes, the battle between light and darkness. Emily’s power is painted in luminous shades of pink, contrasting with the deep blues and dark purples of IKOL and the shadows. However, Kibuishi complicates this color contrast by depiction IKOL as a diffuse shadow entity with a vein of pink running through him. IKOL contains light just as Emily and the other stonekeepers contain shadow that threatens to overtake them, representing the novel’s investigation of The Struggle Between Darkness and Light as it plays out internally within characters.

Kibuishi explores this theme again as Emily liberates an elf soldier from the shadow parasite. The elf soldier reacts with fear and suspicion, showing how there is safety and comfort in submitting to the darkness. The episode also furthers Kibuishi’s investigation into the nature of autonomy. Having previously shown IKOL’s desire to control others for the “greater good,” Kibuishi now shows someone who wants to be controlled rather than embrace responsibility for his own actions: Even as the shadows warp and intensify the elf soldier’s fear and anger, the soldier expresses a desire to keep his shadow. He looks at Emily with a wounded expression and speaks to her in an accusatory way, asking, “[W]hy have you done this to me” (7), as if she has harmed him. The elf soldier’s behavior supports IKOL’s argument that people do not actually want to be free, forcing Emily to confront the reality that people have conflicting desires; again, IKOL tries to manipulate Emily by building an argument out of a seed of truth.

That the episode only strengthens Emily’s resolve to reject IKOL and fight off the manipulative shadows once more highlights Emily’s character growth. Soon after, the work vindicates Emily’s approach when she successfully encourages Cora and Cala to let go of their anger and hatred, allowing them to return to their true selves. She frames her stone power not as a mechanism of conquest but as a “gift,” a means to absorb their darkness and give them the space to find their own center. Ultimately, the work defends the value of autonomy; though respecting autonomy means accepting the possibility that people will choose poorly, the mere recognition of others’ agency and individuality can help avert this, bolstering their ability to make good decisions.

These opening pages also introduce the graphic novel’s secondary storyline, as the elf prince Trellis returns to Valcor to discover a newly appointed king. Like Emily’s arc, this one explores what it means to wield power, but it does so in less abstract fashion. Indeed, Kibuishi immediately draws a visual contrast between Emily’s cosmic journey and Trellis’s more grounded political story by switching from neon purples and pinks to muted yellows and browns that communicate the grimy and destitute environment in Valcor. 

Against this backdrop, Kibuishi explores the relationship between leadership and trust, developing the theme of The Benefits of Collaborative Leadership. Trellis has a hereditary claim to the throne; his supporters consider him the “true king” and have placed their trust in the hereditary institution as a means of legitimizing leadership. Meanwhile, Gabilan has forged a different kind of trust with the people of Valcor, who have appointed him king “in the absence of leadership” (23). Gabilan has legitimized his leadership through merit, necessity, and the will of the people. He invites Trellis to reflect on the nature of leadership by asking how the people of Valcor can “trust those who wield so much power” (23), pointing out that Trellis came to Valcor to exercise his own power against the people who appointed Gabilan—a move that implicitly links Trellis to those, like IKOL, who try to impose their will on others. Trellis, however, responds by recognizing that true leadership requires consent: He must rebuild the trust between himself as a representative of the stonekeepers and the people of Valcor. Respecting Gabilan’s legitimate leadership is a key step in Trellis’s journey to understand his role in Alledia’s future and furthers the work’s thematic investigation of autonomy versus coercion.