Hello, my friends. Halloween’s thrilling horror is nearly upon us, the souls are busy stirring, and the moon has nearly reached its fever pitch. Now that things have become supernaturally serious for our main character, it’s time to see how he’ll prepare for his greatest challenges to come. As such, I welcome you all back to another entry of my special review series called…
So far, our first three chapters have presented us with a young man named Rodney “Rod” Marcelli, a high school student whose youthful life was very stable between his budding football career and having a beautiful girlfriend named Jennifer Conway. However, he’s been having a progressive series of nightmares that finally came to pass during their Homecoming Dance where a pair of youthful-looking twin witches named Janelle and Circe unleashed their demonic boyfriends upon their classmates. Even though our main couple managed to escape their grasp, Jennifer wound up within the clutches of Black Wolf. During this encounter, Rod finally discovered his werewolf side as they engaged each other in a Lycan-fueled struggle. However, Black Wolf’s experience helped him easily prevail as he wounded Marcelli before kidnapping Conway. As Rod heals up in a hospital, he overhears a small group of FBI agents requesting to interrogate him, since a string of murders upon Marcelli’s past girlfriends is what brought them to West Middlesex in the first place. Rod manages to escape and ultimately makes it back to his home, but more terror-filled turns awaited him with his parents strung up on their fireplace before a small group of vampires and werewolves burst in to capture him. Thankfully, a white-haired female werewolf smashed her way in and helped him slay the opposing demons. Now that we’re caught up, let’s resume our creepy critical journey.
We begin this special double feature with Issue 4 (originally published in July 2020) as series creator Robert A. Multari continues to write the story, pen the script and handles the lettering. Helping him out for this entry is Carlos Herrera who handles the cover and line art, while Gat Melvyn deals with the colors. As for how this saga continues, let’s resume the critical hunt and find out.
Issue 4 begins in the Marcelli household as Rod and the female werewolf warrior look over the recently slayed vampires & werewolves. Unfortunately, Marcelli recognizes all of them as his fellow high school students, especially since some of them are his and Jennifer’s friends. As such, they were all transformed into demonic creatures, and he ultimately had to take them out. Not only that, but his parents were legitimately murdered as he proceeds to break down and cry while the woman hugs him & apologizes for his loss. We then shift over to the West Middlesex Police Department as Chief Idora demands an explanation for the high school slaughter that’s led to the disappearance of sixteen students without any leads. Raymond, who’s the head agent of the FBI’s Special Investigations Unit, says that Rodney Marcelli was their only lead, but he fled from the hospital. When he and his fellow agents then went back to the high school to search for more clues, they noticed that the young man’s car had left the scene. When Chief Idora tells him that he hasn’t been able to contact the boy’s parents and that there isn’t any answer at the house, Agent Bokor decides that they should all head over there.
Over at the Marcelli household, the woman asks Rod if he has any weapons before he tells her that his dad has some guns as he tries to ask her what good they’ll be against vampires & werewolves. However, she tells him to pack them and some clothes before she promises to explain. He initially refuses since all he wants to do is find out where his girlfriend has been taken, but the woman tells him that he’ll need to trust her in order for him to pull off a successful rescue. Not only that, but he can never go back to his previous life. Marcelli then looks at his parents’ corpses as she tells him that they’re in a better place, but he snaps and says that he can’t trust her if he doesn’t even know her name. As such, she introduces herself as Cirilla “Cirray” MacKinlay and that her tribal name is Snow Paw. Not only that, but she’s also lost everything dear to her. She then tells him that the world has more than what humans can comprehend before they spot an approaching car, forcing them to flee into the nearby woods. It turns out that Chief Idora, Raymond and his fellow agents have arrived as the police chief notices some extensive damage from outside. From there, they all head in to search before they reach the main room and discover the carnage. Later, the police proceed to investigate the room before an officer informs Idora, Agent Marcelli and Agent Hyde that out of the sixteen deceased victims, eleven of them were teenagers. Not only that, but there’s no sign of Rodney despite his jeep being in the driveway and that the victims on the fireplace were his parents. Raymond then starts to piece the boy’s recent disappearance to the slayed figures at the house, but Chief Idora doesn’t buy that he would be behind the carnage. Not to mention, Ann Marie, Rebecca, Candyce and Jennifer are all still missing, so he thinks that the true suspect came back to get Rod in order to cover their tracks. Agent Bokor says that he’ll consider it as a possibility, but he won’t rule anything out since there’s more to this than they would think. We then shift to the Pittsburgh-based Allegheny General Hospital on Monday morning as Victor Craden delivers a public address to the press where he announces that his new synthetic plasma will deal with the constant demand for blood donations. Through the reporters’ questions, he also adds that it’ll cover all blood types and that it can even be synced with a patient’s blood type in order for there to be a successful transfusion. He also mentions that his company is working on an advanced sunscreen in order for the human race to deal with harmful UV rays as a result of the planet’s depleting ozone layer. Just then, he gets informed by his bodyguard of some pressing matters as he proceeds to take his leave.
Back within the woods near the Marcelli household, Rod and Cirilla are hiding from the authorities. While they wait it out, she decides to pass the time by delving into their werewolf-filled history. Despite various historical legends about werewolves from around the world, she mentions that Lycanthropes have been around before written history and they’ve existed across the globe within various packs. Not to mention, they’ve each had their own “unique breed and culture”. However, Lycanthropes are considered the outcast breed just because of their religious beliefs. Snow Paw mentions that they’re members of this breed called the Monoki, which means “One God”, yet it’s been divided into two different and diverse packs. Not to mention, their breed’s origin dates back just before the birth of Jesus. It all began with a blackhearted Lycanthrope named Kallarious who found the human race as a blight that must be wiped out. The main devil himself named Lucifer was so impressed by this malevolent ambition that he recruited the fiendish werewolf to help him carry out an evil plan of his. Kallarious would be provided with his own loyal drone army of Lycanthropes that would help him smite all of humanity and in return, he must give his absolute obedience to his master and provide him with all of the human souls from those that he’s turned into werewolves. As such, Kallarious became the inaugural member of the evil Monoki breed called the Mongrels. To prevent this horrid threat to mankind from coming to pass, a Seraphim Enforcer had to recruit a pure-hearted Lycanthrope. Thankfully, he found a being name Kayl who believed that every single life is valued and became the Monoki’s first-ever purebred. Eventually, these two figures came across each other while Kallarious was attempting to sway the Roman Empire within his own evil influence. Thankfully, Kayl confronted him as they proceeded to engage each other in a fierce battle. Ultimately, they both suffered and died from their mortal wounds, yet their souls would be locked in an eternal conflict within the afterlife. Cirilla then mentions to Rod how over the years, the majority of their breed were only born as carriers of the recessive gene, thus allowing them to live as regular humans. However, they were also born with Lycanthropy, and they can potentially change during self-maturity or even during a stressful moment.
She goes on to explain that when a Monoki is born, their pelts will reveal what their true nature is. Specifically, whether it reflects them as “a reincarnation of Kayl or Kallarious”. However, she notices that Marcelli is something of an anomaly. She also mentions that their heightened sense of smell can detect whether a fellow werewolf is either kind-hearted or evil. She tells him that his pelt is gradient and that she’s unsure of what to do with him, while Marcelli narrates how her notion doesn’t sit well with him and he believes that she’s potentially hiding something. Suddenly, an armored figure appears above them on a tree branch and tells him that she has some mixed feelings towards bumping him off. Snow Paw recognizes him as Night Hunter before he proceeds to jump down and reveal that he’s also familiar with her. He then says that this area has been filled with supernatural activity and he thinks that Rod is a major reason for it. As such, he intends to slay him while he still hasn’t mastered his werewolf skills. Marcelli then asks Cirilla why she even bothered saving him, to which she says that she simply doesn’t know why he’s different from every other werewolf. Either way, she’s unable to sway Night Hunter from his personal intent. Fortunately, Rod is able to transform as they end up fighting each other. They proceed to struggle for a while before Marcelli pins his foe down. Meanwhile, Lord Malice has a phone call with Black Claw and learns that his right-hand Lycan hasn’t been able to reach Rod, especially since their “drones” were decimated via some help and that he’s not able to reach the house due to it being swarmed by the police. Lord Malice realizes that Marcelli received some aid from either Snow Paw or Night Hunter, the latter of which Black Claw has attempted and failed to rub out. As such, Lord Malice tells Black Claw to find Rodney or else before he hangs up.
Elsewhere, Jennifer is asleep within a bed before she wakes up and wonders where she is. Just then, a maid named Jaime comes in and addresses her as Miss Elisabeth. She even tells Conway to get dressed since Master Victor is arriving to take her on a picnic. A rightfully confused Jennifer asks her who he is, to which Jaime tells her that he is her fiancé. From there, Conway gets out of bed and looks out the window as she discovers that she’s somehow back in time and within Boston. Back within the West Middlesex woods, Cirilla tells Rod to refrain from slaughtering his opponent because if he does, then he’s no better than the fiends that killed his parents. Ultimately, she manages to get him under control and makes him transform back into his human form. After assuring him that Marcelli isn’t a Mongrel, Night Hunter says that he’s still not a purebred. Despite that, he allows Rod to be her responsibility due to Fabian trusting her judgment. However, he vows to keep on eye on them and promises to slay Marcelli should he step out of line. As Night Hunter takes his leave, Rod asks Snow Paw who Fabian is, to which she explains that he was Night Hunter’s mentor and that they used to work together on missions. However, Fabian became mortally wounded during one of their slayings and it turned Night Hunter off from all werewolves. From there, she tells Marcelli that they can head back to his home in order to gather some supplies before they head to one of her safe houses. Meanwhile, Night Hunter has returned to his stealth plane before he gets contacted by a familiar young woman named Jessie. After it’s revealed that his first name is Raven, he tells Jessie that Cirilla is vouching for Rod. Jessie then mentions her admiration for Snow Paw and that her grandfather has always trusted her character judgment, to which Raven says that he’ll run some surveillance on them in the hopes of leading them to the Dark Covenant’s hideout so that they can also smite Lord Malice.
Meanwhile, Raymond and his fellow agents are taking their leave from the West Middlesex Police Department. Suddenly, Agent Bokor gets called up by their boss named Director Andrés. He mentions that despite being attacked back on Friday night, they suspect Rod Marcelli to be somewhat involved with the murder of his parents and most of the missing teenagers. As for the cause of death, Raymond mentions how it’s most likely supernatural, specifically vampire and werewolf in nature. As such, Director Andrés orders him & his agents to bring the bodies in for examination and that if they’re right, he wants them to find some live specimens and bring those in as well. Elsewhere, Master Victor has arrived as Jennifer approaches him in the guise of Elisabeth. As she sees him, she suddenly gets a feeling of familiarity towards him. As Victor expresses his admiration towards her beauty, Issue 4 ends with her narrating how this feels very real to her.
Moving on, we now reach Issue 5. Published in May 2021, Robert A. Multari continues to helm the story, script and lettering duties. Once again, Carlos Herrera handled both the cover & line artwork, while Gat Melvyn maintains his coloring responsibilities. As for how things progress from this point in the overall narrative, let’s continue this critical journey and find out.
Issue 5 opens back at the Marcelli household on a Monday afternoon as a fully dressed Rod has packed some supplies. Snow Paw mentions that she’s gathered some food that will nourish them for a while before she asks him about his father’s weapons. After mentioning the wide range of guns and bows that his deceased dad has, he says that he doesn’t know how they’ll help them, to which she says that they will once he’s done with his training. However, he says that they have to immediately rescue Jennifer, but she essentially advises against him doing so without a proper plan and without essential training. Not only that, but he’s also not even aware of how massive the Dark Covenant is. Rodney says that he can handle himself, but Cirilla reminds him that all he’s done was slaughter some fiendish drones alongside her and even “caught Night Hunter by surprise”, the latter of which was only possible due to the energy burst that he emits every time he transforms into a werewolf. In addition, his first encounter with Black Wolf saw him get roughed up before he found himself in the hospital. From there, she mentions that Black Wolf was even capable of killing her mentor named Silver Mane, a purebred warrior who was even armed with Wolfsbane. Rod apologizes for his ignorance before he asks about Wolfsbane, to which Cirilla explains that it’s the most powerful weapon that the ancient purebreds had ever forged. Specifically, it’s a sword made out of bones and silver, similar to her twin daggers, but it also has “the collective strength and knowledge of all the fallen purebred warriors”. As such, only a true purebred who cares for all life is able to properly wield it and unlock its true potential. He then asks her what happened to it, to which she explains that Black Claw had claimed it for himself after slaughtering Silver Mane and even left her for dead. With him fully understanding the serious scale of what they’re up against, they proceed to load their supplies into his father’s vehicle. She even tells Marcelli that their safe house is located deep within the Appalachian Mountains and not too far from the last spot that the Dark Covenant had occupied. Once they complete his training, she tells him that they’ll begin searching for the devious group’s new location before mentioning that she and Silver Mane blew up their prior headquarters before their doomed fight against Black Claw.
We then shift to some place elsewhere as Jennifer is out on a historical horse-drawn carriage ride with Victor and under the guise of Elisabeth. He notices that she’s being strangely quiet, to which she says that she feels out of place and within another world. Despite feeling a bit comfortable with him, she still has a nagging feeling that something’s off. Just then, she notices a harrowing incident and gets their driver to stop. It turns out that she’s spotted a young man getting attacked by a large wolf as she gets out and strikes the beast with her parasol. Afterwards, she checks up on the injured man before she horrifyingly discovers to be Rod. From there, she wakes up from what turned out to be a dream as she still discovers that she’s still a prisoner. Meanwhile, Lord Malice notices this and is disappointed. Despite a fellow right-hand man named Lucas Ferrara warning him that he’s wasting his time and that they have far-more urgent matters to deal with in the name of their Dark Lord before he heads back to New York City, Lord Malice tells him that they’ll eventually talk about his findings from the Seraphim. Afterwards, he confronts Hecate and demands to know why her spell is failing to affect Jennifer. The sinister spellcaster explains that Conway has some strong will, and her subconscious mind created an image of her boyfriend getting attacked by Black Claw out of her own concern for his well-being. Despite that setback, Hecate promises to keep cracking at it, even using Rodney’s image to their advantage if they have to in order to finally bend her will. As such, Lord Malice leaves her to her duty in order for him and Lucas to deal with a request from the Dark Lord and vows to have Jennifer serve as his eternal bride.
We then shift over to a wooded area of the Appalachian Mountains on a Tuesday afternoon as Snow Paw leads Rod towards her safe house. They ultimately reach their destination, but Marcelli discovers that the safe house is actually a cave instead of a cabin. She explains that as Lycanthropes, they weren’t able to go out and get a fulltime job in order to receive the necessary payment that the familiar luxuries required. She then tells him to rest up since his training will begin in an hour, but he exhaustingly complains over the fact that they spent all of last night just to reach the cave. They then get into a heated argument where she criticizes how much his past life has made him soft, to which he mentions that even military boot camps allow their recruits to sleep. Eventually, she tells him to get comfortable as he notices a bed within the cave. From there, he narrates how right she ultimately is since he’ll never be able to return to his past life, even if he manages to rescue Jennifer. After all, his sisters will assume that he’s dead and the authorities wouldn’t believe the notion that supernatural creatures murdered his parents, in addition to turning his friends into monsters.
Meanwhile, the FBI agents have returned to the Marcelli household to continue their investigation. Raymond has contacted his boss and informed him that the crime scene was disturbed. Not to mention, he also brings up that fact that the weapons storage has been pilfered. As he looks over Area 51 of the FBI’s Special Investigation headquarters, Director Andrés asks him if they have any leads. Agent Raymond says that they don’t, but they’ve put an APB on the family truck in the hopes that something turns up. He also mentions that Police Chief Idora doesn’t believe that Rodney is somehow involved and has him listed under “Missing Persons”. As such, Andrés says that he’ll send a team of agents to help out while ordering him to thoroughly examine the whole property.
Later that day, Rod is in the middle of his training with Cirilla. During this, he narrates how his adrenaline is surging throughout his instinctive muscles. Despite that, Snow Paw is easily able to block his strikes, slice up his shirt and trip him up. She tells him to stop swinging his sword like a club before she defeats him with a punch to his face. She then helps him up while telling him to maintain his balance and that it’s not about strength, but stamina & finesse.
Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched by a brown-haired werewolf who manages to return to a luxury cabin where Black Wolf is holding up as he informs him of our heroes’ location and that they were training. Realizing that it’s one of the purebred’s hideouts, Black Wolf then gets angry with himself for not destroying that cave when he originally had the chance. When the werewolf asks him if he can gather his pack, Black Wolf initially declines his request, since he wants to inform Lord Malice about this once he wakes up from his slumber in order to not feel his wrath for going over his head with this crucial piece of information. We then return to our heroes’ safe house on Wednesday morning as Cirilla begins to train Marcelli on his Lycanthropy forms, particularly his transformations into a werewolf and a regular wolf. After she informs him that their human form is called Anthropos, their werewolf form is called Dyre and their wolf form is called Lukos, Rod proceeds to transform into a werewolf as the familiar energy burst comes out of him following his physical shift. He asks her why this happens every time he does that, to which she says that she doesn’t know, especially since no prior Monoki had ever harnessed this kind of power. She then has him shift into his wolf form, then back into a werewolf before returning to his human self. Marcelli manages to do so before Snow Paw realizes that he only releases a powerful energy burst when he transforms from human into werewolf. She then tells him to become a werewolf again but focus his surging energy into a fist and hit the ground just as he transforms. He manages to successfully do so before she decides to see if he can do this again while focusing his energy into other objects.
We then shift to someplace elsewhere as Jennifer wakes up within a bedroom and gets a feeling of similarity. Just then, a maid comes in as Conway continues to receive the perception of déjà vu from this. However, things continue to get weird for Jennifer when her maid reveals a bridal dress before her friend Jess comes in and reminds her of the bachelorette party that was just thrown for her. To her surprise, Conway learns that she’s about to get married to a rich man named Victor. Back at the cave-based safe house on a Wednesday afternoon, Cirilla approaches Rod in order to train him how to properly slay opposing supernatural creatures. She tells him that when it comes to vampires, garlic and crucifixes don’t work. Fortunately, sunlight will reduce them to ash while all Lycanthropes are weak to silver. As he receives his father’s hunting rifle, he asks her why they’re not practicing with silver bullets instead of the regular ammunition that came with his dad’s weapons. She explains that while silver bullets are more effective, they can’t afford the amount of silver that they need yet. Fortunately, they’ll be able to take whatever they can from their slayed foes in order to pawn them off for money, even though it won’t be enough. Thankfully, most of their supernatural foes can get taken out by attacking the heart and brain. While Marcelli takes his practice shot upon a target, he says that she hasn’t told him about the kind of adversaries that they’re going up against, especially since he heard her mentioning about them taking on the Dark Covenant. She initially explains that the group is an “unholy alliance between the forces of darkness”. After Rod makes a sarcastic comment where he wants her to elaborate, she gets briefly annoyed before she calms down and makes him promise to knock it off before she continues. She goes on to explain that the Dark Covenant is made up of various supernatural creatures, consisting of Nosferatu (vampires), Dark Magiks (witches, warlocks, necromancers & “the wicked lot”) Mongrel Monoki and other kinds of demonic beasts. While they would normally keep to their own kind, they all made a malevolent deal to forge an alliance with Lucifer. Under his rule, these factions have been split into various global regions. In return, each region has its own ruler that all answer to Lucifer. As for the region that they’re in, it’s under the control of Lord Malice. Even though she doesn’t know much about him, she’s already heard about his wickedness. She then assures Rod that Lord Malice is to blame for ruining his life and kidnapping his girlfriend. In addition, she tells him that Black Claw serves him as a “loyal Dark Covenant lapdog”. With Marcelli admitting that he’s glad to take part in their “suicide mission” and that he understands why he needs training, Issue 5 ends with him asking what they’ll be practicing on next.
Overall, these two issues provided a major forward step with its developmental progression. In terms of Issue 4, it all starts with Snow Paw revealing her backstory and how she’s connected into the overall conflict. For the brief batch of information that she tells Rodney (and by extension, the readers), it makes her likable, fascinating and unique enough to serve this story. Of course, she has her own spinoff series and I’m sure that it delves further into her past to help elaborate on these details. While I do plan on covering it down the line, what’s presented here serves Marcelli’s story and displays her as a strong warrior whose part of the several millennia-old conflict and must now help Rod out, since he’s become a potentially crucial figure in tearing down the Dark Covenant once and for all. In addition, we finally begin to delve into this world’s supernatural lore. The explanation provided a historically grand feel that’s looming large over the main conflict and gives a unique reason for why werewolves exist on the planet to begin with. Kayl and Kallarious serving as the forebearers of the world’s entire werewolf legacy felt grand in scale, though it doesn’t necessarily explain how their Lycanthropy would spread from them over the several thousand years. Maybe it resulted from Kallarious’ Lycan army attacking other people within the Roman Empire and it slowly expanded out from there ever since. If that detail was presented here or in a future issue, then that would be a solid explanation within the grand mythos. As such, the initial mythology is mainly well thought out, even if that minor lapse in detail came up during the whole examination process. In terms of the remaining supporting characters and elements that the first issue originally presented, they all finally get some significant progression. Victor Craden’s newly made synthetic plasma gets expounded upon and looks to somehow become a crucial component within the overall conflict. Also, the duo of Raven/Night Hunter and Jessie also managed to find their roles within the massive supernatural conflict. While Raven does the primary field work, Jessie seems to serve as his technician and mechanic. Whether they’re secretly working for a discreet government agency or they’re operating on their own within a massive financial support system (given their stealth jet), that’s an aspect that could potentially be explained away in a later installment. In terms of two elements that carry over between Issues 4 & 5 (and can serve as a segway into my overall thoughts upon the fifth chapter of this saga), there’s Agent Raymond Bokor and his investigation into the supernatural occurrences within West Middlesex. In a way, his constant delving into the otherworldly aura reminds me a bit of the Aquaman TV Pilot, since it also had a governmental figure who’s looking to get to the bottom of the seemingly unexplainable events surrounding a small town and can potentially cast our main protagonist within a bad light. Unlike that venture where it couldn’t get picked up to become a regular series, these comics begin to make some crucial progress. Between both issues, it comes off like he wants to blame Rod for the uncanny incidents due to all of them being related to our youthful protagonist in some way. Obviously, the reader would prefer for him and his organization to realize the true culprits behind the whole ordeal in order to have their eyes fully-opened to what’s actually been going on. While this is an ongoing thread, it continues to serve as a nice element that can potentially either help or hinder Marcelli’s ultimate end goal by the end. As for the other element from the inaugural issue that’s finally addressed, it explores a potential side quest that Lord Malice wants to personally happen. Because Jennifer bears a striking resemblance to a former love of his named Elisabeth, he’s hoping that Hecate will ensnare Conway within a mystically formed situation in order to reunite him with whom he thinks is his reincarnated lover. Whether or not Jennifer is truly the reincarnation of Elisabeth is rightfully left as a mystery to be solved later on. Either way, these series of events continue to display how tough Conway actually is, despite her dire situation. Deep down, she’s still devoted to Rod and she subconsciously refuses to back down that easily. As such, her strength within her imprisoned setting was a well-handled display of female empowerment. Moving on to Issue 5, this entry had its main focus upon Snow Paw as she takes on the role of Rod’s mentor. The training sequences were presented pretty good, though I felt that more coverage of his struggles and his attempts to improve from them would’ve made those moments of his personal progression feel a bit more satisfying. For what they are though, they still serve the main narrative in a neat way. They do have a few arguments and they thankfully never devolve into petty blowups just for the sake of drama. Mostly, they’re fueled by Rod’s desire to save Jennifer and while Cirilla understands his personal plight, she knows that he’s nowhere near prepared to embark on that fateful mission. As for his realization that their safe house is actually a cave, that serves as a transitional moment where he has to fully leave the comforts of his former life behind him in order to save his true love and potentially bring a permanent end to an evil organization that’s loomed large over the globe. In terms of Rod’s personal progression, the story finally sees him starting to grasp his unique Lycan trait of releasing a powerful energy burst every time he transforms into a werewolf. While a later installment will hopefully explain why he seems to be the only one of his kind who can do this, Marcelli continues to make some crucial steps forward in being skilled within this area along with other aspects of combat. Getting back to Snow Paw, this issue also gives us some extra details about her past history. While maintaining a grand feel, it’s actually far-more personal due to it being about her mentor, a legendary weapon he used to have and how a current enemy executed him in order to claim said blade for himself. Not to mention, it also showed how foreboding Black Wolf is if he’s even able to rough her up. More than likely, the fabled sword’s introduction was nicely handled and sets itself up for whatever grand power it’s capable of unleashing within the right set of hands. In terms of pacing, both issues are able to carefully balance its plot developments with its character progression. The exposition felt natural and came during the necessary downtime that would allow it to be given. For having to juggle a few running plots all at once, it greatly handles three essential threads (Rod’s training with Snow Paw, Agent Bokor’s investigation and Lord Malice’s dark magic-filled attempt to romantically have Jennifer) while other factors loom over them and bide their time before they can become important within the narrative. Both entries may have been lacking in horrifying chills (aside from the gruesome corpses created during the attack at Rod’s house and maybe the magical dreams that attempt to hook Jennifer up with Lord Malice), but the story and character progressions helped to carry both chapters past that lacking element. Finally, the artwork within both issues has found a good-looking compromise. While the first two issues presented a bright & colorful comic book design and the third entry had more of a moody, cell-shaded layer of realism, Parts 4 & 5 are able to land on a middle ground that sees a perfect blend of color-packed action to dark and serious tones. Not only does every person pop out within some nice detail, but there’s also some genuine effort within the majority of the panels that’re delivering some background detail. It helps that some of the locations are simple in nature, but others manage to bring some nice details within other notable spots in this story’s world. All-in-all, the duo of Herrera & Melyvn came together in order to deliver that sweet spot and present a style that works for this creation. In the end, these two issues succeeded in advancing its ongoing storyline with neat pacing, good characterization and solid artwork. They helped the primary narrative take an exciting jump forward and kept its audience engaged for the thrilling moments that’re on the horizon. So, what new twists and turns will Rod come across for All Hallow’s Eve? Come back next time as the full moon reaches its spooky zenith and I conclude my Halloween hunt. Until then, keep your fangs and claws at the ready for the tales that await us.
Night Wolf (created by Robert A. Multari) is owned by Lone Wolf Media Entertainment, Inc.
