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WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE: BLACK FURIES GN
"Shades of Gray Justice"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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Moonstone Books
Writer: Joe Gentile
Artist: Eddy Newell
Letters: Terri Boyle
Editor: Ethan Skemp
Price: $5.95 US |
As fans of White Wolf already know, the world of Werewolf is fairly complex and layered, and Black Furies has to not only introduce the concepts of tribes, clans, birth aspects and the conflict between the Garou and the Wyrm but also introduce unique characters and a plot. It's no surprise, therefore, that the story gets a bit confusing, and in the end I left the story uncertain what had finally happened. However, while I was confused by some of the book, I was also quite impressed by Gentile's ability to fill the reader in on the basics of the Werewolf setting and to create
interesting and well-realized characters. In addition, it was really good to see
Eddy Newell's art again, even if it did at times contribute to the sense of
confusion. As with most of Moonstone's books so far, I'm not sure I would
recommend this to the casual comic reader, but I would definitely recommend it
to those with an interest in seeing White Wolf's properties done in a fashion
true to the source material.
There are any number of important elements of the setting to impart to the reader, and Gentile does it with a lot of narration early on. Though it could easily have been an overwhelming flood of information, keeping the narration in the lead character's voice helps to overcome the sense that the writer is just talking directly to the reader, and the fairly complex notions of character generation in Werewolf are imparted to readers with skill. By the end of the first few pages, the reader knows the tribe, and though they may not know instinctively what terms like "Ragabash" or "Galliard" mean, there's enough context given to explain. Even better, fans of Werewolf will be quite impressed by the detail and accuracy that Gentile brings to the work, staying well within the constraints of Werewolf game mechanics and world background to
build characters.
Given that the pack mentality is an important part of the Werewolf setting, it's
equally important that the feeling of family and loyalty that comes from being a
member of the pack comes through in the comic. Gentile shines here as well,
building up believable and complicated relationships between the various members
of the pack, but never giving cause to doubt loyalty among them.
I was a fan of Eddy Newell's work on DC's Black Lightning, and he is woefully underused in this industry given his impressive talent. His work on Black Furies is very impressive, done in the same greywash style he used to great acclaim on Black Lightning, giving the book a sort of painted and surrealist look. The spiral
patterns that surround the Black Spiral Dancers, while sometimes obscuring the
action, are fantastic for indicating their visceral evil with a visual shortcut,
and he captures the bestial power of the werewolf forms very well. I do wish
that he had distinguished between the various werewolf forms a little better, as
they tended to fade into an unrecognizable mass during the final showdown, but
in general I thought the atmosphere and style here was top notch.
While I enjoyed the complexity of the story, I did find the Black Furies
a little hard to follow at some points. The basic idea of hunting down an
abusive boyfriend was clear enough, although it seemed an overly hard task for a
group of accomplished hunters like the Garou. It was the addition of the Black
Spiral Dancers, and Libra's seeming cross over to the dark side, that I wasn't
quite clear on. This may be a game mechanic that wasn't explained well enough in
the comic itself, or I may just be missing some of the subtleties, but the
ending left me scratching my head, wondering why Libra's transformation wasn't
completed, or why she was spared in the final battle.
This comic book was not part of this week's new releases.
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