The tide begins to shift ever so slightly, but with a great cost.
Creative Staff:
Story: Peter Milligan
Art: Sally Cantirino
Colors: Dearbhla Kelly
Letterer: Andworld
What They Say:
Nightmare deaths, constant fear, and twisted emotions.
When top virologist Dr. Naresh Sharma gets an unexpected request from General Sullivan to help him catch one of the monsters who killed her beloved son, she might just find a way to avenge her boy and stop herself from crumbling with grief. But how do you catch a monster who appears out of nowhere and just as quickly vanishes? Meanwhile, we discover what really scares General Sullivan – and it isn’t a monster.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Peter Milligan has been on my radar a lot in the last couple of years with a number of projects and his work with Vault Comics definitely fits in well with a lot of what they’ve produced over their existence. Milligan has always tapped into the weird well, going back decades, but it’s the underlying humanity that makes his stories engaging, even one like this that introduces a lot of characters. This series has definitely played to the weird and violent side that goes back many years in his work and it’s disturbing but thoroughly engaging. Joining him on this journey is Sally Cantirino, who has done some really solid recently with I Walk With Monsters also for Vault, so getting a new series from them here just makes my day. It looks great as it covers a ton of locations and characters with a big range of emotions – and non-emotions.
The events of this installment provide a glimmer of hope but so much of it comes after so much loss and pain. Anjali in particular is really struggling here after seeing the death of her child at the hands of these creatures and has thrown herself completely into her work, to the point of exhaustion. But it’s when General Sullivan comes to visit her that she’s really given some direction as he talks about wanting to capture one and figure out how to deal with it. There’s a good montage of material here going through some of the early basics of it but it mixes in the characters side as well, especially with the way Anjali’s cousin learns of the death and begins to blame herself very quickly thinking she was the one that left things in a way that the boy could get out. It adds a new complication between them even as both of them are facing very hard realities on their own, now no longer able to lean on each other for help.
The attempts at capturing one of the creatures is definitely interesting as they attempt to lure it in through human emotion using a giant outdoor TV set up with chemicals that will hopefully knock it out. It takes a bit of time to figure out the right combination for things to make it work but it’s fascinating watching how it plays out with Anjali being so focused while with Sullivan we see more of his past and why he’s so intent on control and composure. The highlight of his father and the memory loss and how it’s impacting him, even though he’s been told it’s not hereditary, definitely makes for some compelling pages, even if you know it’s going to end badly for dear old dad. But that’s tied with the attempt to get the creature and begin to figure out ways to kill or at least neutralize them. I’m admittedly more curious as to their origins at this point but that’s not a “real world” concern for these characters just yet.
In Summary:
There’s a lot to like in this issue after getting three installments of very dark and grim material. Everything we’ve seen so far has been tragedy after tragedy that hasn’t resulted in any real progress, which is more than fine. But getting things starting to turn here is definitely engaging as there’s a different kind of focus here, one that’s kept to fewer characters and an actual goal instead of just survival and keeping one’s head down. I really like the flow of this one and Cantirino got to have fun showing off the creatures in a new way that definitely isn’t what we’ve seen before. I’m excited to see what’s next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: December 29th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
