Reviews 

“Dresden Files: Dog Men” #1

By | June 16th, 2017
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

The Dresden Files has been blessed with a pretty decent comics adaptation. Not only do the Dynamite miniseries cover the events of the books, they fill in the gaps between the books. Harry’s smaller adventures have been, on occasion, fun stories for fans of the series. With Dog Men, Harry Dresden and his allies have got a pretty typical mystery to solve, only with, you know, wolf-people.

Cover by Diego Galindo
Written by Mark Powers
Illustrated by Diego Galindo
Colored by Mohan
Lettered by Tom Napolitano

Harry Dresden is a man on the edge – and that is something that can be dangerous to friend and foe alike. He’s been drafted by a senior member of the White Council of Wizards to investigate a series of murders in rural Mississippi. As always, there’s more afoot than is immediately apparent. The question is, will Harry’s state of mind keep him from seeing it, and will his actions lead him into direct conflict with the wizard who’s depending on his help?

Without burying the lede too much, Dog Men is a mixed bag. There’s a lot in it for fans of the series, including a laborious eye towards continuity. Harry and his crew have a new case taking place firmly after the eighth book in the series. An opening sequence gives artist Diego Galindo a chance to draw a lot of the cast, and it’s a visual treat.

In the opening sequence, Harry’s friends all get murdered. While that’s a bummer, Galindo rocks out with his takes on Molly and Murph. Molly is still a teenager here, and Galindo draws her looking young, and her dyed hair is the perfect blend of cool and stupid. Murph is picture perfect. She’s not big or burly, but you have no doubt that she could kick the ass of any ghoul or beastie in her path.

Of course, Dresden fans know that Molly and Murph aren’t going to kick the bucket in the middle of the series, so course this is a dream. Being such an obvious twist, the dream sequence eats up valuable page time that could have been better spent advancing the plot.

As for the plot, Harry is approached by the venerable Listens-to-Wind (or “Injun Joe” if you’re old and racist like Harry’s mentor Ebeneezer) who needs Harry’s detective skills. Something fishy is going on in Mississippi. Harry and Listens-to-Wind load up into the Blue Beetle (Harry’s ugly, tiny car) and head south, their pets in toe. Harry’s oversized mastiff Mouse is another character that Galindo revels in drawing and he is adorable. Mouse totally steals the show.

The roadtrip sequence is also a questionable use of readers’ time. I like Listens-to-Wind as much as any old magical coot in the series, but we’re three quarters through the book by the time he and Harry get to the murder scene. That’s where things finally click into place and Harry gets to play out his own personal My Cousin Vinny. The Chicago P.I. is far away from home, and the end of the issue teases some fun fish out of water stuff to come.

As you may have surmised, I’m a big Dresden fan, and I’m desperate for the next book to come out. I’ve dabbled in the comics before, and find them lots of fun. While it’s cool to get a visual representation of Harry’s world, this issue didn’t really (if you’ll pardon the pun) bring the magic. You get the feeling that the creative team is smart, but they don’t really wow within this issue.

That doesn’t mean Dog Men is a disaster. Once the mystery is properly underway, Mark Powers does some clever things with your expectations. Let’s just say that he plays off of your werewolf expectations, without contradicting anything from the book series with an elegance that impressed me.

It’s those sorts of elegant strokes that make me think this miniseries is going somewhere. After all, mysteries often take a while to reach a satisfying payoff. I think Dog Men has a lot of potential, even if this issue was a bit of a mess. It’s probably not going to be as good as Dead Beat, but I bet it will shape up to be at least as much fun as Blood Rites.

Final Verdict: 7.2 – An even chapter that may turn into a fun Dresden mystery.


Jaina Hill

Jaina is from New York. She currently lives in Ohio. Ask her, and she'll swear she's one of those people who loves both Star Wars and Star Trek equally. Say hi to her on twitter @Rambling_Moose!

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