Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt, and Tyler Crook’s “Manor Black: Fire in the Blood” #4 wraps up this latest arc in spectacularly horrific fashion. It is a grand family tragedy, showing a much darker side of “Manor Black.”
After the big reveal at the end of issue #3, it’s impossible to talk around the various plot developments, so this review will contain many major spoilers.
Written by Cullen Bunn and Brian HurttCover by Brian Hurtt
and Tyler Crook
Illustrated by Brian Hurtt
Colored by Tyler Crook
Lettered by Tyler CrookAs Roman Black’s family unravels, Ari and Reggie go head to head over whose rein belongs at the helm of Manor Black in this final issue of the hit gothic horror series.
When a comic has a cover with the character’s home burning down and blood rain falling all around him, maybe it’s a bit of an understatement to say things go badly in this issue for Roman Black. It was bad enough that his sisters, Esme and Talia, were murdered, but that their deaths were at the hand of their own father makes things so much worse. Yes, it’s clear Victor, the mysterious infernalist, was using Maximilian Black, but Maximilian was not tricked into this arrangement. He entered into it knowing full well that it would cost him his children and it was a sacrifice he was willing to make to stave off the Descent.
We learn all this as Maximilian rampages as a monstrous figure of blood and fire, but it’s the aftermath that’s the most chilling, when Roman talks to the spirit of his father in the family Crypt. Maximilian shows absolutely no remorse for what he’s done, and seems convinced that Roman will understand as his own Descent approaches. The thing is, Maximilian isn’t dead and gone, he’s just dead. Roman has to live with Maximilian for the rest of his life, and then on after his own Descent for as long as the House of Blood holds. His sisters are gone, but this twisted, remorseless man has been bound to Roman and all those that follow as the head of the House of Blood. His poisonous words will echo down through the generations.
When a person becomes immortal, so too do the ideas and values that person clings to. In this regard, the Descent takes on a Hellish quality.
It’s easy to forget that in the flashbacks of ‘Fire in the Blood’ Roman is already over a hundred years old. He still looks like a young man, but he was born in the first half of the 19th century. He was alive before the American Civil War, so through this miniseries mentions of slavery seem very pointed. The old Black family manor is even an Antebellum home to further draw attention to that era of slavery. And in issue #2 Deidre talked to Roman about how the first Flame Mages were slaves in ancient Egypt. This is an undercurrent throughout ‘Fire in the Blood,’ and we’re meant to be thinking about it.
Roman’s story arc culminated as the old Black manor burnt down around him, and still he saves Charles, Jasmine, and Deidre. Roman is largely a cypher in both existing arcs of “Manor Black”—we witness his from the outside and can only guess at what worries him and motivates him, what kind of man he was in the first hundred years of his life and how those years changed him. Still, his first act as head of the House of Blood is to save the family’s servants. It is a defining moment. But it is not the entirety of who Roman is. In this moment, it’s easy to read Roman as a white saviour, but before the issue is done, we are reminded Roman is a complicated man. He and Deidre had a son, and yet this child does not live in the Black manor with his siblings.
This is the real power of ‘Fire in the Blood.’ There are no simple characters. Victor could be read as a villain, but given the themes the story is exploring, I’m pretty sure Maximilian Black would have held slaves back in the day. Victor’s line “you Blood Mages have always used others” is simply too pointed. The first Fire Mages used their power against their enslavers, and that casts Victor taking Maximilian as his puppet in a new light.
Continued belowI already enjoyed the first arc of “Manor Black,” but ‘Fire in the Blood’ makes it a richer to reread. The first scene in the Black family crypt takes on a more ominous tone as Roman’s ancestors reveal they all have the same yearnings that drove Maximilian to commit such horrors—and Roman feels its pull too. The friction between Roman and Maximilian is echoed in the friction between Reginald and Roman. That first arc starts to feel more like a prelude to a new horror to come.
In terms of art, “Manor Black” is among my favorite comics for the year so far. On my first read through, there were moments when I simply had to stop and admire a panel. It is genuinely difficult to believe the art is the result of two distinct artists. Brian Hurtt and Tyler Crook’s work here is so incredibly unified. It’s easy with inked sections of the page to say, “Oh, that’s Hurtt and the color is Crook,” but there are frequently parts of the image that aren’t inked, that must’ve been pencilled by Hurtt, but left to Crook to paint for the final page. It’s a spectacularly seamless collaboration.
I’m continually impressed by Hurtt’s visual storytelling. As a character, Roman is someone we experience from the outside, but we get just enough to still connect with him. Hurtt uses Roman’s hair as a way to reveal his internal state. In the flashback material, when the character is first introduced, his hair is perfect until his father is mentioned and then a single strand breaks loose from the others. As the story progresses, Roman’s hair becomes looser, becoming completely dishevelled in the wake of Esme and Talia’s deaths. Here in issue #4, his hairstyle becomes wilder during the fight and ends flattened and dripping with blood. These visual cues give us just enough to read the character while also keeping him at arm’s length.
“Manor Black: Fire in the Blood” shows Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt demonstrating their best episodic storytelling, matching their work “The Sixth Gun”. The arc has an extremely strong identity of its own, while also functioning as a compelling chapter in a larger story. Despite being mostly a flashback tale, it advances the modern day plot in crucial ways and ends the issue with an urgency for the next arc. And it recontextualizes the first arc. There may only be two arcs of “Manor Black” so far, but already the series feels stronger than the sum of its parts—and its parts are pretty damn strong in their own right.
Final Verdict: 9 – “Manor Black: Fire in the Blood” is an enthralling vignette in a much more complex tapestry, yet its role as a piece in something larger never eclipses the story at hand. It is a powerful story even on its own.
