Criminal Macabre: The Third Child #1
Dark Horse
Words: Steve Niles
Pictures: Christopher Mitten

Holy crap, I love Criminal Macabre.  There.  I said it.  I was jazzed when this issue came out so I could witness the further evolution of our beloved anti-hero, Cal Macdonald.  The little monster hunter who is becoming an undead monster himself.  It’s classic.  And so well done.  Plus, Frankenstein, I’m sorry, Adam, has hung around from the last mini-series. 

So you’ve got Cal, who is whatever the heck he’s becoming, his old ghoul buddy Molock and now the Frankenstein Monste…. I mean Adam.  They’re my new favorite Three Man Tag Team.  (Sorry Fabulous Freebirds, but c’mon.  A ghoul, a giant Frankenstein Monster and Cal?  True they lack the flamboyant personality of Michael P.S. Hayes, but otherwise, they take the belts, every time.)

So while Cal and Co. get ready to fend off another round of Monster Mayhem (the vampires, werevolves and other nere do wells are planning on hitting a hospital for food.  I know, gross), we’ve got a couple of weird demonic babies floating around town driving people crazy and feeding off the emotions of it all.  This is a damn creepy pair of babies.  One’s a big fat, knobby headed baby with a tail.  The other one is a little floating guy that apparently sucks your face off.  Hats off to Christopher Mitten for hitting this issue out of the park.  Everything about the art here is damn near perfect.  It’s dark and violent and gorgeous.  I so dig it. 

And I didn’t even mention how we get a flash back to what I assume is Cal’s first kill and the Ouija board scene that has a rather unexpected effect. (Well, for those using it anyway.  We knew once they pulled that out that something bad was going to happen.  If you are one to screen talk at movies, this is where you would say “Oh, no.  Don’t even mess with that.  Why are you messing with that?  Don’t you know you’re in Criminal Macabre?  This ain’t gonna end well for you.  BAM!  Told ya.”)

5 out of 5 Floating Naked Babies