Dark Horse Quick Reviews: The Witcher, Buffy, Barb Wire & More

The Witcher Final Issue: Joe Quiero has the uncanny knack for having the Witcher look simultaneously put upon and fed up. This hapless crew that has dragged him into an altercation with Fox Mother has brought our hero to the end of his tether. You would think that since this is the final issue Paul Tobin would neatly wrap up this storyline, but Tobin doesn’t care if you want a definitive conclusion. Instead he leaves the door open along with a trail of questions that leaves the reader wanting more.

“This Damned Band”: The damned band in question of Paul Cornell’s ode to groups who delved in excess is Motherfather. For hype purposes they claim they practice the dark arts and have sold their soul in order to achieve some high level of spirituality. By the end of this first issue you stop caring whether this is true or not. As you continue to read, you’ll be waiting in vain for something to happen, some revelation or twist. Instead you get a series of clichés about an era that has already been exhausted in other genres. However, the art by Tony Parker is on point.

“Barb Wire”: In Steel Harbor, Barb is barely surviving as a bounty hunter and bar owner. Worse yet the only way to truly solidify her reputation and keep her from drowning is to apprehend a mountain of a man, who dresses like a Viking and breaks into police stations. All this is occurring alongside the gentrification of a city that sounds like a drop-off point in the film “Escape From New York.”

Chris Warner’s latest edition of “Barb Wire” leaves you continuously asking yourself why stay in this place? Why not pack it in and leave? Being besieged on all sides, where the gangs want you to clean up their mess, and still stay out of their business, a lesser person would just close up shop. However, there is something deeper going on here. Still, it’s exhausting to see Barb navigate the crazies, the gangs and a mayor who seems to have a secret agenda. In the meantime the artwork by a team which includes Adam Hughes emphasizes the anger, frustration and struggle endured by the characters. Every grimace, thrown punch and gun fired adds to the enjoyment factor of this comic.

“Angel & Faith” Season 10 issue 17: If there’s one thing that Buffy, evil-otherworld baddie hunter has taught us is that if you can survive high school, you can survive anything. For Faith, Buffy’s fellow slayer, if only her charges could do just that, at the very least stay alive. While Angel is assisting Buffy and the Scooby gang with Archeus (a demon who seems to have his tentacles everywhere) Faith and Fred are left to deal with students being killed in a preppy high school. Somehow they’re connected to Angel’s visions and Faith in her undercover role as a gym teacher is barely holding her head above water in dealing with this problem.

It’s hardly her fault. Every time she plugs up one hole another gapes open and while Fred is capable, it’s going to take more than just the two of them to end this infestation. Writer Victor Gischler and artist Cliff Richards bring to the panels of this comic a sense of life and rhythm that is similar to the television series. Quite an impressive feat in this medium. Personalities and inside jokes teem off the page. You look forward to the next installment the same way you looked forward to another episode.