All are pawns in a game.
Moriarty steps things up and while I’m sad to see any
Sherlockian traits so far, his character has some great moments here, mostly as
a manipulator.
Liss uses Moriarty well, as he plays a chess game with the
Baron, turning pieces against him over and over.
The artwork by Indro and Costa capture the dark atmosphere
pervading over the town and its inhabitants brilliantly.
SPOILERS FOLLOW………………
Moriarty has successfully infiltrated the Baron’s men in disguise
as Walther, having created a new for new men in the wake of his fictitious new
gang called the Wolf Pack.
Gustav, the Baron’s right hand man, assigns ‘Walther’ to a
gang and Moriarty makes sure to get his group inebriated. Then looking around,
he finds a group of lowly thieves.
Using them, he tells them that his group has riches with
them and is afraid of a gang calling themselves the ‘Wolf Pack’.
Creating the situation where the thieves attack the group
shouting ‘Wolf Pack’, he attacks the thieves and smashes all their skulls in
with alacrity.
This earns him an audience with the Baron. Moriarty is able
to pass off his disguise due to the little interaction he had with the man and
the fact that the Baron is troubled, feeling his influence is waning.
Elsewhere, Moriarty’s hosts in town are busy themselves. Karl
and Udo traveled, making it seem like Moriarty has left town, creating a false
trail for the Baron to follow.
Sara his wife still has misgivings about the man, but Karl
trusts Moriarty blindly. Later, as Udo sits on his bed, Sara come in and makes
Udo realize that he must take matters into his own hands if he doesn’t one day
wish to be not in Moriarty’s best interests.
It does feel a little forced that the fact that Moriarty is
not ‘heroic’ and is only being made to play the part has to be hammered at
repeated turns during the issue.
Meeting with the Baron, he notices his wife reading. Walther
is assigned the duty of painting the town red with the blood of innocents to
give rise to a fear which will make the townspeople look at the Baron in hope.
And kudos to the artist/s for the scene where the Baron
implants a human embryo into a cow for the initial spectacle of ‘demonic’ problems.
As Moriarty aka Walther leaves, he strikes up a conversation
with the Baron’s wife due to their shared love of Goethe. But Gustav spies this
conversation and reminds ‘Walther’ of his assigned job within earshot of the
wife.
Preparing to leave that night, the Baron’s wife takes
Walther aside and confides in him that if he can delay such depraved bloodshed,
she will tell him of the riches inside the Baron’s palace and they will rob it
and elope.
In the town, the Baron’s plan start to spin as the spectacle
of a dead dissected cow with a dead human baby inside create panic and fear in
the minds of the townspeople. Elsewhere, Udo has himself entered the Baron’s
palace under the guise of the new kitchen boy.
While I love what Liss is doing with Moriarty as an expert
manipulator, things seem to be falling into his lap instead of too much action
on his part.
Udo’s role in avenging his mother’s murder at the hands of
the Baron and his family secret are still nascent plot points but hopefully Liss will
address them soon.
SPOILERS END……………
With some great artwork and some great character moments
from the title character, this issue is a good read though plagued by some
convenient events.
Liss has created a mysterious world and I’m glad he didn’t
take the supernatural bend literally, instead showing how events can be
arranged to make people believe in anything.
So, I give this 7.5 out of 10.
+Some great character moments
+Good artwork
-Underuse of the secondary protagonist
-Some contrived circumstances
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