Fresh off reading and reviewing The Witcher: House of Glass, I’m diving into Vol. 2 – Fox Children. Is it as good as the White Wolf’s previous tale?
The Witcher: Fox Children (Dark Horse Comics)
Someone’s getting fanged. She’s pissed.
Fox Children opens with our favorite Witcher making his way into a river town, bartering for passage on a boat with townsfolk who are more than willing to take him aboard knowing his past and his reputation:
Supposed, schmopposed. I have two swords on my back and a bad attitude.
The problem is that all is not as it seems, as the reason these shipmates are so eager to get a monster hunter aboard is that they’ve been tasked with returning a vulpess child to her parents—a creature created to be a fox lycanthrope of sorts—and they’re holding her in the hold of the ship.
Unfortunately, the creature’s mother knows where she is, and sets about attacking the ship with illusions to gain the release of her daughter…but things get really bad, really quick:
When the dwarf is the voice of reason, ya’ll got some issues.
Is It Good?
I’m going to give this an 8 out of 10. I liked it, and I enjoyed reading it, but I wasn’t as drawn in as I was with Vol. 1. The fact that the main antagonist can use illusions to distort the world to kill people is an incredibly well done creepy turn, recalling my childhood terror of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
Also, the ending is very satisfactory, and the weirdness of the path there keeps you wondering the entire way.
Still, I think the difference between volumes 1 and 2 is in the fact that you care about Jakob and his dead wife in the previous volume, and you kind of take a sick glee in seeing the assholes on this ship bite it in vol. 2.
I do really appreciate the fact that the dry wit and humor that Geralt shows in other depictions make it way into this book in small ways:
“You don’t need that axe. The loincloth will scare anything away”
The artwork is a little less sketchy in nature and more solid in this collection, with fantastic ship scenes and some intense, skin crawling depictions of what’s just under the water’s surface:
“WE JUST WANTED TO FIND RAY’S BODY!”
Note: if you understand that vague reference, we are bros.
So, it’s a fun tale, with a deep morality play vibe that might turn off some. Give it a whirl if you’re still looking for as much Butcher of Blaviken as you can handle.
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