A dark end.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Sable
Art: Giorgio Pontrelli
Colors: Pippa Bowland
Letterer: Thomas Mauer
What They Say:
Miranda Keller is one of J. Edgar Hoover’s first female investigators. After all, she’s seen in the Miskatonic Valley – a white supremacist cult, bulletproof amphibious humanoids, and the reanimated dead – she might also be the last. Now, her career and her life depend on stopping the resurrection of an Elder God.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Miskatonic started off in an interesting way by exploring some of the early years of the FBI under Hoover and the way women were involved briefly before they were kept from agent status for decades. Blending that with some Lovecraftian stuff was nicely timed with the Lovecraft Country TV series with both of them taking place in similar locations in my home state. I really enjoyed what Giorgio Pontrelli brought to the project in capturing the look of the period with his particular sense of style as it had a neat kind of older feeling that at times reminded me of the Tintin books I’d collect as a kid decades ago. The combination that makes up the creative team here is definitely solid.
But I struggled with the last couple of issues in the way the cast grew and moved about, something that was made problematic by its monthly schedule that a binge/trade read will fix easily. Coming into the final installment, Sable is able to bring it all together pretty well and explain the events in a clear way that makes sense with all that had been going on. Enough so that it makes me want to re-read the prior issues to see if it was clear enough what was happening and if I was just oblivious to it in seeing how Asenath was taken over and how she’s the one truly controlling events. Part of that made sense but the who she is part didn’t, which amused me since Tom is thinking the complete opposite, not believing a woman could orchestrate things even though he’s spent as much time with Miranda as he has.
There’s a lot of time with the two leads separate from each other and going through the reveals, a little bit of an info dump but one that works well enough in the context of the time and situation, but we do eventually get them back together as Asenath is looking to make the world into something new, one where she ascends to true godhood and is able to put humanity in its place. It’s an amusing collection of creatures on the small island that she takes Miranda to but revealing her true self definitely is disturbing and well-played as both Miranda and Tom know what they have to do to save the world.
In Summary:
I wanted to like Miskatonic more than I did, or at least as much as I did at the start. The middle couple of issues ended up being more complex than I think warranted but that’s the context of a monthly-ish kind of read as opposed to a sitdown reading the full book. The finale brings everything together well enough so that it makes sense and the bigger picture is showcased well. I do think Sable succeeded in his primary goal here – beyond telling a good story – that there were women agents at a very early stage of the bureau and that they served admirably and were just as capable as everyone else. I liked Miranda, and I like the subplot with Asenath as it wasn’t expected. But I also like what Tom brought to the book and the little bits of nuance we got throughout the social-political aspects of the time.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: March 24th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
