My Rating
“The Dormants”
London, England – 1648. Baron Winters and Merlin the leopard lie dying on the cold floor of a cellar prison once occupied by the witch Kassandra Fey.
Somehow, the Gatherers have struck a bargain with the homicidal witch, offering Kassandra her freedom in exchange for her cooperation. Apparently, even the Gatherers are willing to make a deal with the devil when the situation calls for it.
As life slowly drains from his body, Baron Winters manages to turn his head toward the doorway. Through fading eyes, he watches the monstrous Simon Talman and two accomplices begin sealing the entrance with bricks.
One brick at a time, the seventeenth-century dungeon becomes a tomb.
Baron Winters and Merlin are being buried alive.
Or dead.
With those two, I’m not sure there’s much of a difference.
Hilton Head Island – 1956
Sergeant Jim Duffy Jr. and Zoe Davis have barely escaped the Duffy family home after being thrown backward through time. Inside, a supernatural vortex of disembodied shadows tears into Jim’s father.
Jim has already lived through the consequences of this moment once.
Now he is being forced to witness his father’s murder firsthand.
Jim and Zoe scramble toward the fence line behind the house, desperate to put some distance between themselves and the nightmare unfolding inside. Before they can reach safety, an enormous explosion of glass, wood, and siding erupts from the building.
The blast knocks both members of the Night Force off their feet.
Then the shadows emerge.
Dark shapes pour through the shattered remains of the house and begin creeping toward the stunned pair. Zoe struggles to recover while one horrible thought races through Jim Duffy’s mind.
He is watching his father die.
Again.
Meanwhile, the Gatherers have problems of their own. Their generations-long experiment isn’t unfolding according to plan. Senator Brian W. Greene is suffering from increasing psychological problems, while Mia’s miscarriage may have destroyed their best opportunity to produce the mysterious Generation Twelve.
For creatures who have supposedly spent centuries manipulating human bloodlines, things are beginning to get a little sloppy.
Can the Gatherers stabilize Senator Brian W. Greene? Did Mia’s miscarriage destroy their only chance of producing a Generation Twelve? What connects Madeline Greene to Cary Singer? Can Jim and Zoe escape 1956 without changing their own history?
And are Baron Winters and Merlin really dead?
Come on. It’s Baron Winters and Merlin.
Collect the series to find out!
Reviewer Notes
Well, Zoe Davis finally got an opportunity to browse through Baron Winters’ diary, and she confirmed something many of us probably suspected already.
Baron Winters isn’t human.
Well, that explains everything!
Actually, that was sarcasm.
After three volumes of Night Force, I still don’t know exactly what the hell Baron Winters is. Immortal? Demon? Sorcerer? Some supernatural entity connected directly to Wintersgate Manor? Every time Marv Wolfman gets close to giving us an answer, he throws another mystery onto the pile.
Something tells me Marv is going to take the Baron’s complete backstory to his grave.
Come on, man!
I was also a little confused by some of the locations and terminology in this issue. At one point, a building is described in a way that made me wonder exactly what kind of property we’re dealing with. Wintersgate Manor has always been presented as a substantial mansion with some very unusual spaces beneath it, so calling something associated with this setup a “brownstone” threw me for a loop.
Then we have the idea of destroying a mansion to conceal whatever is hidden underneath it.
Excuse me?
You have a massive secret underground complex beneath a building in Washington, D.C., and your brilliant plan for keeping everyone from investigating the property is to set the building on fire?
Hello, McFly?!?
Think, McFly! Think!
Wouldn’t a major fire make people more interested in what was underneath the building?
Logic aside, there is plenty happening in “The Dormants.” Wolfman bounces between centuries, characters, and competing agendas. The Night Force is in trouble. The Gatherers are having problems. Baron Winters and Merlin appear to be dead. Kassandra Fey is loose. Jim Duffy is watching one of the worst moments of his life happen all over again. Nobody seems to have complete control of the situation anymore.
That chaos actually works in the story’s favor, even if the plot doesn’t advance as far as I would have liked. With only two issues remaining, however, Wolfman has a lot of explaining left to do.
I’m giving Night Force Vol. 3 #5 three out of five stars. It isn’t as strong as the previous few issues, but it’s still entertaining enough to keep me moving forward.
Two books left, Marv.
I’m still waiting for those answers.