This week brings us the conclusion of Harrow County’s fourth arc. It’s been a somewhat uneven journey to get here, but each issue provided enough intrigue to create the potential for a thrilling finale.
Is it good?
Harrow County #16 (Dark Horse Comics)
Observations
- Emmy’s making this house party all types of awkward.
- Never a good sign when most of the guests disappear into thin air…
- …and you’re still stuck inside the house, which now occupies some sort of transitional hell dimension.
- Skinless Boy to the rescue!
- Gotta admit, it’s nice seeing the douchey leader of the bad guys look scared.
- Deus Ex Emmy-ma?
Is It Good?
As great as Tyler Crook’s work has been in this series, his work here might be among my favorites.
The story by Cullen Bunn? Not so much.
It’s not bad, but the ending feels a little off. I’m all for characters finding their inner strength to defeat evil, but there’s a limit to how much that can affect the narrative. I’m willing to suspend my disbelief quite a bit (this is a story about witches and magical creatures after all), but not this far.
All that being said, I LOVED the scenes with the ‘family’ going into Harrow County, particularly the encounter one of them has with the coolest-looking monster in the series. I also greatly enjoyed Emmy’s dialogue with her captors, particularly when she’s left alone with one while the rest wreaked havoc upon her people.
I also like the way Bunn solidified the importance of Harrow County itself to the mythology of the series. Besides being a perfectly haunting setting, it also continues to develop into a great character within the series itself.
Combine that with Crook’s aforementioned beautiful artwork, and Harrow County #16 definitely has more good than bad between the pages. Let’s hope that the conclusion of this story arc allows it to go back to being great again as Halloween approaches.
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