He’s back! Our loveable monster detective, Cal McDonald. And he’s back in a rather demolished state of mind. His physical nature’s not doing so well either. “Criminal Macabre: The Third Child” is the newest arc in Steve Niles’ long running supernatural detective series that blew itself to pieces last fall with “The Eyes of Frankenstein” arc. “The Third Child” issue #1 wastes absolutely no time going completely bananas. Niles told Bloody Disgusting last year, “It’s going to get pretty intense… I’ve been teasing at Cal losing control. It’s one thing to look like a monster, but what happens inside that creates the soul of a monster?” If anyone can answer that question, it’s Niles, one of the greatest “monster comic” writers of the last decade.
WRITTEN BY: Steve Niles
ART BY: Christopher Mitten
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: September 17, 2014
Reviewed By Bree Odgen
“CM: The Third Child” picks up right after last fall’s arc… and I urge you to go immerse yourself in this world if you’ve not already, but for the sake of this review, I’ll say a few things for those of you unfamiliar with the series. Cal has become everything he has ever hated in life. Namely, some form of a monster that we are unsure of. And after giving up his normality to save his ghoulish friends (friends he’ll never admit to caring about), he’s going to have to confront his new “normal” head on.
Niles warned that this arc would take a look into the darkness of Cal’s past and family life. And he does not delay on that promise. It begins with a vague, yet fairly intuitive flashback with a young Cal, showing us a traumatic event that’s implied to have led to his monster hunting, be it monsters of the monster variety or monsters of the human variety. This flashback thread will most likely be a heartbreaking one, but I fully trust Niles to handle it with elegance and care.
Back in the present, Cal is in a deeply dark emotive state and killing monsters in the grisliest of ways. His pals, Adam and Mo are on standby, watching their friend sink lower and lower while the profound level of their love and acceptance makes my heart tighten. Niles doesn’t just write great horror; he has perfected a form of dramatic horror with vast heart and a certain amount of wit that serves his Cal storylines so beautifully.
It’s clear that Niles has a direct path for this arc and he’s not fucking around. Too often, new arcs take at least a full issue to get to the meat, “CM: The Third Child” took a few pages before opening the dialogue on “demon babies” and “monster wars.” As always, Cal will maintain an attitude of distance and apathy. But he’ll never be able to not care. It’s too ingrained in his very nature. He’s trying to hold on to the “him” he’s always known, but in reality, he’s being pulled in opposite directions: the direction to care and fight the good fight while also being pulled in a direction to give himself over to a darker power. In short: he’s a fucking disaster.
Meanwhile, all that talk of demon babies and monster wars was no joke. There are gummy little pink demon blobs turning citizens of Los Angeles into violent fiends. They feed off of pain, hatred, and violence. And while they tear up the place, the monsters of LA are coordinating something else. Could be sinister, could be helpful… it’s a tantalizing mystery.
The first issue of this arc could not have played out more perfectly had the gods of perfect comics written it themselves. Christopher Mitten was born to illustrate Cal McDonald’s world. His art is gritty, loose, hazardous. It feels like the most terrifyingly accurate representation of Niles’ mind. There’s some deep shit here. Like Niles said, it’s going to get intense. This emotional river runs wild and I have a feeling we’ll be touching on issues like self-acceptance, addiction, forgiveness, and most importantly, redemption.
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Bree Ogden is a literary agent at D4EO Literary Agency, a judge for the Ghastly Awards, and the managing editor of the macabre children’s magazine Underneath the Juniper Tree, which she co-founded in 2011 with artist Rebekah Joy Plett. When she’s not watching horror films, reading comics, hiding out at the Pacific Science Center, or killing off her bee colonies, she teaches graphic novel scripting at LitReactor.com. Twitter: @breeogden