It never ends.
Creative Staff:
Story: Peter Tomasi
Art: Ian Bertram
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
Evil has infiltrated Sarah’s sanctuary. Even Warren Peck, her newfound protector and confidant, is overwhelmed by the spirits that seek revenge upon her. In the terrifying conclusion of Tomasi and Bertram’s horror miniseries, Sarah is forced to confront her demons, face to face.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
When the end comes. When what you fear the most stands at your doorstep, hat in hand, grinning that smile that holds too many teeth, there comes a powerful and unexpected sense of relief.
It’s the anticipation that kills you. It’s the worry that eats away at your marrow, causing your bones to collapse in on themselves. It’s the endless string of “what ifs” that play through your mind when you try to sleep. That’s what kills you. And when the monster actually arrives, you feel relieved because there it is. No more wondering. No more worrying. All you can do is act.
That’s what Sarah Winchester does in this final issue. The previous comic ended with the ground opening up in front of her right after a failed attempt by her sister to have her committed. The earth cracked and a mass of bloodred tentacles poured out, growing like kudzu, blindly probing, smashing any and everything they touched.
While the rest of the men ran away, Sarah ran inside, almost jubilant. She saw this as her judgement day—the day she would face the sins of her husband’s company and be reunited with her loved ones. Peck, the gunman who arrived in the first issue, chases after her. As Mercer says, “She was there for us when we needed her. Go get her, Peck. Find her. Find our girl.”
Peck does, but this time the entire house looks like a jigsaw puzzle come undone. Sarah went to face her judgement in her bedroom with the clothes from her daughter and husband that she had been using as surrogates for them. The floor opened and swallowed the clothes, enraging her, making her scream, “Have I not done enough?!” And then she too fell, buried in the house she refused to stop building.
Paradoxically, very little goes on in this issue, and yet what does happen is momentous. It’s the culmination of everything the previous five issues built up to, the crescendo of the manic, John Cage-esque symphony of hammers, blood, fever, and death. This is the end.
Ian Bertram represents it wonderfully in his large panels and use of splash pages. It’s easy to read through this quickly due to the pacing, but the destruction Bertram draws is powerful and complicated and wonderfully detailed. His characters always seem harried and lost, slicked with feversweat and burning like over stoked furnaces. Dave Stewart’s colors take over where Bertram’s pencils leave off, creating the wonderful, disturbing atmosphere that permeates this book and perfectly complicates and improves the writing.
I won’t ruin the ending, because that’s no fun and I want you to read this, but I will say that it fits. It’s pitch-perfect to the underlying point of the story and presents a powerful view on the cyclical nature of violence and the price we all must pay, even those of us who never pulled the trigger.
In Summary:
House of Penance has been a masterpiece of comic art from the very first issue. The blending of historical fact and fiction structured around a clear premise concerning guilt and debt and madness elevated this comic to something more than your standard fare. And it was all told by a fantastic creative team that truly understood what comics can do. This is a story that could only be told in this medium. It’s brilliant and disturbing, beautiful and cruel and well deserving your time and attention. Dr. Josh gives this an…
Grade: A+
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: 14 September 2016
MSRP: $3.99
