Can there be forgiveness before the end?
Creative Staff:
Story: Dennis Culver
Art: Justin Greenwood
Colors: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Pat Brousseau
What They Say:
Betrayed and alone, Bloody Bliss prepares for her final battle against D’Kayde and his Harbingers. But after her fall from glory last issue, what can one old woman with a broken sword do against an army of evil? Find out in the final thrilling chapter of Crone!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The final installment of this series is one that left me wishing that there was a bit more padding to it, particularly in this issue. Dennis Culver sticks to keeping the story moving forward straight and strong and there’s definitely an appeal in that with how it unfolds. At the same time, you could have easily made the bulk of the issue about her rallying call and it would have really helped to give the whole thing more weight. What we do get here works really well, don’t get me wrong, and Justin Greenwood delivers big time with the artwork on this to give the needed larger than life feeling throughout. It’s been a visually impressive run from the start.
With Bliss being tossed off the edge in the last issue, the process itself is what her mind recreates here as we see her coping with it in that form rather than reality. The opening pages are haunting as she falls further to the bottom only to land in a sea of bones and whatever gods of the times existed there. It’s a heartbreaking moment as she starts to crawl back to reality and has to deal with Ella along the way with the key being forgiveness. While she wakes up to Corinne having taken care of her, bringing her back to her place in order to hide her, it’s an engaging transformation that Bliss goes through. She’s realized she needs to move through to the other side and is intent on doing so. In an unexpected way, she’s come alive here at the end but intends to handle it by bringing together all those that D’Kayde has displaced and forging them as the weapon to take him down.
There’s a good uplifting couple of pages as she finds her new self here, what with the blood in the hair and the bloody hand, and it comes together well as she brings help to those in need while at the same time building an army of the people to go against D’Kayde. And in D’Kayde’s overconfidence, it’s little surprise as he tugs around Gaspar as his prisoner that he sees no value or worth in Bliss at this point, having defeated her already. But she’s goading him and nudging him out so that he performs in all the worst ways. It’s a fast final few pages that brings everything to a close – sans epilogue, sadly – but it delivers on the intensity and the moment, particularly with such beautiful artwork.
In Summary:
I really enjoyed Crone a lot from the start and I think the series as a whole, which could have doubled its run with more fleshing out of the story and the characters, is very strong. It’s the kind of project that I’d love to see transition to a film format because it would be unconventional and it’d be exciting to watch. But at the same time, the core of it is a familiar piece so there aren’t much in the way of surprises here. What makes it work is the strong pacing and scripting combined with great artwork. The end result is a very fun, solid, and brutal story of revenge and redemption – and forgiveness.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 4th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
