“Witchfinder: The Reign of Darkness” closes the door on an era, but opens one to the next. Be warned, this review is packed full of spoilers.
Written by Mike Mignola and Chris RobersonCover by Christopher Mitten
Illustrated by Christopher Mitten
Colored by Michelle Madsen
Lettered by Clem RobinsSir Edward Grey and Sarah Jewell prepare to face one of the darkest entities that either of them has ever encountered! Believing the killer has finally overplayed their hand, Grey may still be in for a surprise when he tries to take them down. Witness the unexpected finale of the latest Witchfinder story from Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson, with art by Christopher Mitten and colors by Michelle Madsen!
Mark Tweedale: I have to say, this was a frustrating ending—not in the sense that it was bad, mind you. It was deliberately frustrating. The cavalier attitude with which Queen Victoria regards the “sparrows” of her empire shows how far Sir Edward has grown beyond her by the end of the story. It is with frustration and profound disappointment that Sir Edward leaves her service. And it leaves us in a place where the final pages don’t feel final at all. The investigation is done, yes, but this feels more like a beginning than an ending, or perhaps even a stepping stone to something new.
Christopher Lewis: Oh yes, it definitely felt like a chapter has closed and another is about to open. We know that after Grey left Her Majesty’s service, he and the Silver Lantern Club performed supernatural investigations from a pub in Whitechapel. With the close of the story being Grey and Miss Jewel having a drink in the Monk’s Head pub in Whitechapel, I have to think we are about to see the beginning of Silver Lantern Club stories.
Mark: Oh, absolutely. If only there had been a teaser at the end… As always, I am impatient for more Ed Grey. But let’s set that aside and focus on what we’ve got here.
For me, the standout of this issue was Christopher Mitten’s art. This was hardly a surprise. I mean, this is a story about stirring Hecate from her slumber, and we’ve seen Mitten draw this sort of thing before in “Rise of the Black Flame” and it was fantastic. As soon as I saw this issue’s cover it was clear we’d be getting more of that.
I like the way this version of Hecate has a shifting form—this is cosmic Hecate, and Mitten gives his all to her pages.
Chris: For sure. The imagery was outstanding. Hecate twisted and curled in each page until her final form emerged.
Mark: “Twisted and curled” is right. Mitten made those drawings move. I am forever comparing Mitten’s work to Indiana Jones, I know, but this ending really does remind me of the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Chris: I also loved Michelle Madsen’s color technique throughout the Hecate sequence. Madsen started the issue by making each panel almost monochromatic with dark blue, and slowly bringing in various shades and highlights of blue as Hecate transformed over the next few pages. This technique made the scene more ominous for me. To be honest, when I saw the first page I was a little annoyed by the use of one color as there was no depth, but once I realized what Madsen was doing I was very pleased.
Mark: Yeah, Hecate’s presence brings a palette we haven’t seen in the rest of this arc and it consumes the scene. She’s all-encompassing, and once she’s gone, Madsen virtually removes blues from the palette.
I hope more than the few women we saw at the end escaped. There were twenty-seven subjects and only eight (including Jewell) made it downstairs to beat up the conspirators. Maybe some legged it as soon as they were rescued? Either way, for a story where Sir Edward is worried about those least fortunate feeling the worst impact of these evils, there were a lot of victims here. And here again Madsen’s colors shine. In the conversation with Queen Victoria, the whole room is red—red walls, red curtains, red floor, red cushions on her throne. She may not wish to acknowledge it, but she has blood on her hands.
Continued belowMeanwhile, the reverse panels on Sir Edward always have him surrounded by black. Mitten and Madsen seem to have made clear compositional choices throughout this whole sequence to show how in darkness he feels in Queen Victoria’s presence.
Chris: Yeah, the coloring for the Queen and a Grey scene was well done. The Queen and Grey are very different people with different perspectives on the world, which showed through the scene. I have to say that I was not surprised by the Queen’s response to the murders and Lady Evelyn’s involvement. However, I was surprised that she had little care regarding the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra. They have been involved in most of Grey’s investigations, so I would have thought she would also have seen them as a threat. It leaves me questioning why she wanted them left alone.
Mark: I’m still left with a lot of questions. As involved as the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra was, Lady Evelyn was really the center of this thing, but even by the end of ‘The Reign of Darkness’ we know so little about her. I hope this is a thread we’ll explore in future. I couldn’t help but notice the matron, Mrs. Hibbert, seemed to have escaped. She and Dr. Haldane both received a beating (thoroughly deserved), but after that she vanished from the story. Haldane was alone when Proserpine Home exploded and Mrs. Hibbert wasn’t among those outside with Grey, Jewell, Asquith, and the escaped women.
Chris: I expect Hibbert to show up again in the future. Somebody with her lack of care for human life will not lay low, and with Grey and Miss Jewell taking up in Whitechapel, I assume they run into each other someday.
Mark: I always interpreted Sir Edward Grey choosing to set up in Whitechapel as a sign that the Jack the Ripper murders were still unresolved in some way, that there was still work to be done, but this story ended up doing something more meaningful with it. Whitechapel is where the victims were, the people that the Crown ignored. By setting up in Whitechapel, it’s like Sir Edward is going where he thinks he’ll be needed most.
Chris: Well, let’s grade this one. It was an enjoyable ending to the mini-series. Mitten and Madsen’s art shine throughout the issue. I am giving it an 8.
Mark: The art was definitely the big draw for me, but I wanted a little more from the resolution. Hecate waking up only to go back to sleep was a little unsatisfying, even if it was pretty great to see her murder all Swain’s men and then consume Lady Evelyn. Though to be fair, Jewell and Grey earned this ending with everything they did the previous issue—the month break between issues made it feel a bit like deus ex machina, even though it really wasn’t. Again, I felt there weren’t quite enough pages, so action was exchanged for dialogue to squeeze everything in. This was only a minor issue, but it occasionally slowed down moments that should’ve been frantic.
As for ‘The Reign of Darkness’ overall, I enjoyed how Roberson took what we knew about Sir Edward Grey’s involvement in the Ripper case and used it to reveal character. For me, this was the best part of the arc. I’m going with a 7.
Final verdict: 7.5 – A solid ending, though there are more than a few loose ends to explore in future stories.
