Ravencroft

After setting things up with the backstory of the Ravencroft Institute in the miniseries Ruins of Ravencroft, this title continues with more things happening in the present day. This includes an uprising by the Unwanted, led by their leader Bud, and an attempt by sinister forces to get hold of the Journals of Jonas Ravencroft.

As with the first Ravencroft volume I thought it was well executed. I like how the opening panels repeat as the images on the security camera screens on the next page, for example. But again it didn’t seem like there was much of a story. The main protagonists are John Jameson, Misty Knight (with a bionic hand attachment that has Wolverine claws), and Dennis Dunphy, as a guard who isn’t Demolition Man. It’s telling that the cover images rarely have much if anything to do with the contents of the individual comics until you get to issue #5. The dual climax combines the battle between the Unwanted and the security forces at Ravencroft and the long-delayed transformation of John Jameson into Man-Wolf. Too long delayed, in my opinion. And I felt sorry for the Unwanted, who really seem hard done by. Despite being grotesque vampire monsters I was cheering them on and hoping they’d destroy Ravencroft at the end. But instead they’re left even worse off. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn is hanging around and we suspect he’s up to no good. Dr. Ashley Kafka is back from the dead. And the Punisher is being held at Ravencroft too, though again I’m not sure why except to make a couple of dramatic entrances and then disappear.

As things leave off it seems as though the spiral death cult of Knull is getting ready to reawaken so maybe things are going to step up (or down) a notch. But two volumes into this series I still feel as though I’m waiting for something to happen. That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of action, because there is, but it seems like running in place.

Graphicalex