This story seems to be more about Sofia than Baltimore, and I have a theory as to why that might be.
Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Illustrated by Peter Bergting
Colors by Dave Stewart
Lettering by Clem RobinsBaltimore investigates a small town in Estonia where the Red King has been seen. But he has little luck getting the townsfolk to speak with him, and a farmhouse full of broken, bloodied bodies is his only lead.
This review is going to be full of spoilers, just so you know.
In the last issue, Lord Baltimore and his companions saved a young woman, Sofia Valk, from her deceased husband, Villem. Sort of. They attacked him until he gave up and fled. Meanwhile Baltimore lost one of his companions, a guy we’d only just met, Quigley. Villem had also gone on a rampage earlier that day, killing or maiming anyone that got in his way as he chased after Sofia.
And, of course, he’s back in this issue to kill and maim all over again. And Baltimore and his companions are as about as effective as they were last time. It’s Sofia that actually manages to finally take him out. It’s a good thing too. I’d hate to see Baltimore lose another companion.
Because he really needs them.
After Chapel of Bones, Lord Baltimore’s goals were changed somewhat. He’s no longer on a self-serving quest for revenge, now he’s fighting to defend the world against a rising evil. And if he was doing it on his own, I’d say he’d be pretty bad at it. He’s good at keeping himself alive, but not so much other people.
All this got me thinking about what the point of this miniseries might be. It’s the first in a new phase, so it would seem a wasted opportunity if it was just a monster-of-the-week story. It’d be far more interesting if it was making a statement about the shift the series is going through. If Baltimore and co. want to stand any sort of chance, they need to change their approach.
In the first issue, I wasn’t sure what to make of Sofia. A lot of time was invested in developing her, while Baltimore and his companions functioned more like the supporting cast. My initial reaction was that perhaps there was more to her story than she was telling, and that in future issues the truth would be revealed (like why the Witch of Harju has such a fixation on her). But now I’m wondering if all the time spent in developing her is because Christopher Golden is developing a new cast member. She could join Baltimore’s party. I know I’m probably reading into it a bit too much, but I must admit I like the idea, especially after this issue ended with Sofia by Baltimore’s side, ready to do battle.
When Chapel of Bones ended I was very excited to see the team Baltimore would assemble. There was Captain Aischros, my favorite character from the book, Dr. Rose, the opium-addicted surgeon, Simon Hodge, a former reporter researching the ways to kill the evil awakening across Europe… All of these characters bring something to the table that Baltimore doesn’t in terms of their skill sets and their approach to problems.
But they’re not in this story. Here we have Quigley, who died before we met him, Thomas Childress, who doesn’t have much personality yet, and Harish, who might be very interesting if we got to see him do anything other than fight. In short, the four (now three) guys in this story are all fighters. And none of them seem to have any experience fighting witches.
Continued belowBut Sofia has lived in a town full of witches. For all we know, she may even be a practitioner. If Baltimore and co. have any chance of stopping the Witch of Harju, Sofia’s going to be involved. And hopefully it will be the beginning of an odder crew, not just a bunch of fighters.
And they could seriously use a priest or some kind of holy person among their number too.
So that’s my hope. It’s also possible that Juta, the Witch of Harju, is actually defending Harju against Sofia… but that kind of twist is less interesting to me.
There was some nice creepy stuff in this issue. I loved Peter Bergting’s image of Juta turning into a crow. That got me really excited to see what else he’ll do with Baltimore. It was also nice in this issue to see the plague doctor outfits (those masks always remind me of the Skeksis). They always look fantastic, and I’m surprised they haven’t shown up in the series before now. And amazingly, I’d never heard of safety coffins before I read this issue. I really like the idea. It was an effective way to build atmosphere, and it came with a payoff later in the issue when the whole graveyard began to ring. I hope next issue they get out of it in an interesting way.
Still, if this weren’t following Chapel of Bones, I would have assumed this was a side story in the vein of Dr. Leskovar’s Remedy, which was a fun story, but it had no real impact on the ongoing plot. With the expanded cast, I was hoping for some character development, something to sink my teeth into, but that hasn’t happened yet. So far it’s been quite light. Honestly, this one’s hard to judge without having read the final part. It’s a solid issue, though it seems a little inconsequential considering what has preceded it.
Final Verdict: 7.
