Everything ends…but there is warning a plenty in the old adage of possibly becoming that which you hate.
Creative Staff:
Writer: Paul Tobin
Artist: Juan Ferrerya
What They Say:
A mental patient battles insanity incarnate in a horrific finale to this mind-bending series.
The Review: (please note that content portions of review may contain spoilers)
Nimble Jack has his victory on hand and just about in his jaws literally as his long cooking meal is finally ready and as a bonus he even has Reece standing by as desert. But rather than digging right in to his long planned dinner Jack wants to savor the entirety of the event and have it exactly spiced to his taste so he decides to take Declan first to the other world and then on a trip down memory lane while waiting for Declan’s temperature to reach zero and the apparently stripped of his free will Declan simply follows along like a lamb to the slaughter.
As Jack journeys he takes the pair back to the asylum where Declan once lived and where Jack found his way into the world and Jack peels back some of the horrors that existed there among far more than just the patients, though Jack hints that each of the people sheltered there is there because they are a monster with perhaps Declan having been the worst of the lot. As the two stand by a window they watch as the doctors abandon any semblance of adhering to the Hippocratic Oath in the hopes of gaining money, fame and distancing themselves from their wards and this greed leads them to experimenting with a drug that calls Jack to the world of plenty from his world of hunger. Finding himself bored of talking to himself, Jack frees Declan from the mental state he put him in allowing Declan to move freely again. With his back completely against the wall, Declan is going to have to put his fear behind and fight the unworldly thing looking to prey on him…but does he have the strength to face up to this incredibly powerful being and if he does night the resulting brawl make one wonder just who is the monster in the fight?
With its finale Colder puts a bow on the tale of horror and madness that it has spun reasonably well through its five issue miniseries run as it brought the reader along on the journey through a world of hunger that it painted as plaguing some minds which perhaps lurks just outside normal perception but that can be felt and which can be reflected in the worst of dreams and maybe even give a hint as to why some people act with the avarice that they do or as a tease of where madness comes from.
Given all the brilliant and at times deliciously disturbed imagery as well as some fantastic ideas that appear at times in the series it is a bit of a letdown in the last story to see how close to more pedestrian horror stories that the book gets as it follows so many well worn paths of a trapped heroine and a protagonist who must now face his greatest fear (though a bit more literally in this case than some others) and rise up to challenge that exists in the form of an antagonist. While there is a lot of room to play with even with this type of a path it seems that a disproportionate amount of time here is taken up showing of the “origin” of how it was that Jack made it through the dimensional walls for little real effect other than to maybe ask the question of who the true monsters are. On top of that Jack only gives very vague hints as to just what Declan might have been which may work as a tease to some readers while others feel a bit cheated as if the author wants to leave some ambiguity either for the future or just in case showing off a very dark past would break the reader from whatever bond they may have made with Declan over the title’s run.
While some of the predominant story elements at times feel a bit familiar throughout the run, the author and artist team up to throw some particularly amazing curve balls into the mix that blend both gruesome imagery with amazing ideas and often mix in humor that helps the title to rise above some of its other elements and provide a rather fulfilling ride. One can’t quite escape the feeling though that the comic almost would have worked better as a screenplay and would transition to theaters with a bit more rhythm in common with that mediums usual pacing than the world of comics. Still the story is a fun and at times fantastic ride even if one can’t quite escape the idea of just how much greater the premise seems to be at times than the execution and how it feels like there is an issue’s worth of pages missing from this tale which a hypothetical “director’s cut” could restore to bring the property to the heights it seems to almost grasp but just fall short.
In Summary:
Colder wraps up its unique tale of horror as its protagonist Declan is dragged through the wringer and forced to visit part of his origin by the creature that has been setting him up to be devoured for decades and he is going to have to be greater than he ever imagined if he has any hope of surviving- let alone saving the person who has become so special to him. With its mix of humor, surreal environment and menacing antagonist Colder serves up a fitting ending for the story that has been built so far and readers will find any enjoyable meal in it, though perhaps not quite the feat they had hoped for at the outset.
Grade: B
