“The world’s a powder keg and I’m ready to blow it the fuck up.” And he’s back. He had a moment there, he needed his space, but Cal is back and Issue #3 of “Criminal Macabre: The Third Child” starts viciously stacking the dominos in place for the conclusion of this arc to obliterate them to pieces. The war has been determined. Both the world of the living and the world of the dead are “overflowing” as Cal puts it, and either the good or the bad can be the dominant one. Light or dark. But not both. “The two can no longer live together.” And so here we are.
WRITTEN BY: Steve Niles
ART BY: Christopher Mitten
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: November 19, 2014
Last year when “Criminal Macabre: Final Night” finished, I was so relieved to see that it was “Criminal Macabre” that had won the war. Not that I don’t love “30 Days of Night” but Cal has always tugged on my heartstrings in a much more profound way. We were told at the beginning of that comic book arc that only one series would survive. Niles was killing off “30 Days.” Something very similar feels like it’s happening in “The Third Child,” it feels like Niles is preparing to kill off a comic book series again. This time it might be Cal, and he might self-implode.
This issue picks up with Cal at his family’s gravesite. He continues his emotional talk with his father and we hear some bolstering up that we rarely hear in regards to Cal. In last month’s issue, he finally broke to the point of asking for help, admitting he didn’t know the answers. That was a big step for Cal, and this issue takes an even bigger one. He admits a lot of harrowing truths as we watch his reality crumble around him. But his father reminds him that he chose to walk in the dark to fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves. And it’s at that moment that Cal realizes what he needs to do to (hopefully) save the world.
Meanwhile, the apocalypse is literally being televised, and Hemlock is out to prove he is the Third Child. Now at this point, we still don’t quite know what the Third Child is, what the requirements are to be it, or if the Third Child will be a good or a bad thing. If Hemlock is, indeed, the Third Child, it will definitely be a bad thing. But dammit if the guts and gore don’t look beautiful at the hand of Mitten.
So here’s where I theorize. I’ve been wrong in the past and I won’t be sad if I’m wrong in this instance. But there are a few hints that this may be the end for Cal McDonald. As in, series over. KaBOOM. He admits in this issue that he’s tired of fighting, that he’s horrified all the time, that something is eating him from the inside. He’s essentially become about as dead as he can be, and he’s transformed into something as monstrous as they come. And then, of course, there are the last three panels of this penultimate issue that give away a big hint this might be it for our supernatural antihero. Either way, Niles and Mitten have dealt out three of the most passionate issues in “CM” history over the last three months, and whether it’s the end of the series or the beginning of a new arc, I’m ready.