In our review of Red Roots #2, Sand and Kate’s paths collide, and she finds herself in a bit of a bind.
Red Roots #2
Writer: Lorenzo De Felici
Art and Main Cover: Lorenzo De Felici
Variant Covers: Paul Azaceta, Flaviano Armentaro
Page Count: 24 pages
Release Date: May 27, 2026
This review contains spoilers
As Red Roots #2 begins, Sand, still riddled with bullet holes and the like, awakes in a desert. After fending off an attack, he’s picked up by the same imposing figure that’d turned up at Kate’s at the end of the last installment. And speaking of Kate, she wakes up to find herself being dragged through some strange unknown locale and reacts as well as could be expected.
During the trip, Kate gets a somewhat better look at her new surroundings, albeit a bit blurry. Their “host”, who we learn is called “Grit”, takes them to see Sarza to get Sand’s injuries healed up. After a moment with Sarza’s tentacles, Sand’s as good as new.
But he also has no idea where the hell they are, and with him and Kate being the only humans in the area, he tosses a smoke grenade and runs off with her. But as they run, they’re met with some opposition.
And then Grit catches up. Knowing that Grit wants to keep Kate in one piece, Sand knocks her off of a rooftop, but grabs a hold of the rope binding her hands and threatens to drop her the rest of the way unless he gets some answers ASAP.
But before any such answers can come his way, an opposing army drops by. And that’s where we are until the third chapter.
There are some stories where, going into them, you can get some idea of where they’re headed right away. But this one, so far, keeps bringing in more questions while answering a few others.
Stuff we find out in Red Roots #2: the figure that showed up at Kate’s last issue goes by “Grit” and those heads belong to him. Sand’s just as confused about this whole situation as Kate is, so the red roots aren’t something he’s familiar with. The heads were, in fact, real.
New questions coming out of Red Roots #2: Where the hell are they? Grit mentions the possibility of Sand either being a recruit or a trophy, depending on if he survives, and some sort of opposing army shows up at the end. So, where’d this conflict come from? With Grit’s collection of heads turning up at Kate’s place, was she just dragged into this whole thing by pure chance that was brought along for some kind of human trafficking purpose or is she some kind of Chosen One?
Getting those answers as the story unfolds is something I’m absolutely looking forward to, because while this story’s weird as hell, it’s also intriguing. And while Kate undoubtedly had her suspicions of her family history of mental illness (if it even is mental illness and not some hereditary connection to this other world), I somehow doubt she ever expected to wake up in some kind of Isekai Hell.
I can imagine her eventually going from scared and confused to a battle-hardened survivor as things go. Or she could be utterly traumatized. The former would be satisfying, of course, but the latter feels plausible, as well, and I’m eager to see where it’s all headed.
The design of this other world in Red Roots #2 is wonderfully otherworldly, I think. It looks like your typical sort of civilization out in the desert, but populated by almost alien-looking beings. It’s no wonder that Sand asks just what kinds of mind-altering substances he’s on.
And that’s not getting into how things must be for Kate, who’s definitely lost her glasses and has already begun to wonder if she’s lost her mind even before ending up there.
Final Thoughts
A curious tale with some well-drawn character work, I’d check Red Roots out. It’s definitely a weird story, and I’m digging it for that so far.
