They’re both pointing guns at a shadow. It’s a shadow on the ceiling. They’re not like...pulling the trigger or noting like that. They’re just...standing there in Isosceles shooting stance waiting for something to happen. Something IS about to happen in Black Cloak #8. Writer Kelly Thompson continues a deeply entertaining fantasy action thriller with some very clever and intricately-conceived art by Meredith McClaren, who also casts the colors across the page. Once again, Thompson’s smary mix of horror, fantasy and police procedural feels remarkably cool and distinctive on the page. It’s quite refreshingly unlike anything else on the comic book rack today.

The black cloak has an idea. It’s drawn to light. It’s a good idea and it ends up working. Only thing is...the two officers aren’t able to catch the thing. It disappears into a hole in the floor that wasn’t there before. It’s gone, but it’s left the investigators with a couple of clues. It took a hell of a chance returning to the scene of the crime so soon after it happened. Maybe it was looking for something. Maybe it was looking...for someone. What’s more...the monster in question was a draggern. It’s a HUGE mythical beast. If one of THOSE was running around the city, there would be much more carnage.

Thompson once again casts the reader into a world that feels like it’s fully-formed on a whole bunch of different levels. She’s choosing not to spend a great deal of time hammering-in the specifics of the fantasy world of magic and tech. The world-building happens around the edges of the action of something that continues feel centered in the emotions of a few people valiantly matching forward into an investigation that finds them in way over their heads. The dialogue is crisp and engaging. The action moves swiftly across the page in an intricate dance with the art. 

McClaren moves the action around the page with a powerful sense of drama. The emotional end of the physical action feels strikingly organic, which is quite and accomplishment given the fact that it’s all as fantastic as it is. There’s an investigator who has just bounded down into the darkness to pursue a monster. There’s very real determination in her face. The fact that she’s got wings and is rendered in a manga-inspired cuddliness is only extra mood around the edges of a very moving journey into mystery at the heart of it all.

What continues to be the most remarkable thing about Black Cloak is its immersiveness. It isn’t just Thomspon’s sharply-realized urban fantasy world...it isn’t just the fact that McClaren has a brilliant sense of design for fashion and architecture. It’s also the fact that the color and the dialogue and the perspectives and the central emotionality of it all come together in a way that feels very real...even in a world of monsters and humanoids flying around the place with leathery wings. 

Grade: A+