Count Crowley: The Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #1 Review
Count Crowley: The Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #1 Review
Story: David Dastmalchian
Art: Lukas Ketner
Colors: Lauren Affe
Letters: Frank Cvetkovic
Covers: Lukas Ketner & Francesco Francavilla
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Who’d ever think that a vampiric antagonist’s plan to conquer the world is through cable television? But if you compare it to the media funneling and structure we have today, then Dark Horse’s Count Crowley: The Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter is making some striking parallels. Darkness often hides in plain sight where you can’t see it but is close enough to strike when you least expect it. Tell that to Barnes, who knows the difference between a man and a monster.
Unfortunately, for Jerri Bartman, she’ll have to deal with her human ethics because, in the monster-hunting world, there are none except the ones that keep you joining the undead.
David Dastmalchian crafts a fun and witty monster hunter story in this first issue. Through the entertaining narrative quips of Morgus Melancholy’s rhyme, we understand Jerri’s recent downtrod of unsettling events, but with one upside—Count Crowley. The issue is that the former Count Crowley, Barnes, or jerk hole, as Jerri puts it, believes Jerri can’t live up to the potential or mentality of a true monster slayer.
He doesn’t even pity her for not being able to slay her werewolf friend, whom Barnes shows no remorse toward before putting a bullet in his brain. You know I’ve heard the original way to kill a zombie or vampire in the late 1800s undead stories was in the art of decapitations, but I’ve never heard of killing a werewolf by removing its tongue and then letting it bleed out slowly. That’s a new one for me.
If Sam and Dean Winchester had a sister, or even an alternate-dimensional sister that only appears in spin-offs, then Jerri Bartman would certainly be a candidate. Her personal relationship issues only add to the frustration that she only seems to be good at killing monsters, and not even her brother Ben would give her the time of day. It could only get much worse when Jimmy, a policeman, asks her out on a date. What’s a girl to do to learn how to be better at what she has the talent for?
Her response to these woes is to return a cat that followed her home when she broke into Barnes’s house. Oh, right, Jerri broke into Barnes’s house. What’s even weirder than a cat trying to communicate with Jerri the way cats don’t normally do is the new mask dealer, who’s literally “killing the children” with freebies. What a monster!
Of course, David’s obstacles for Jerri are going to become more of a “kill your darlings” storyline because a noble vampire is on a first-class hell-storm in Jerri’s neighborhood. Whether she knows it or not, drinking her way to the solution will not remove the painted target she’s about to become. In the crosshairs of a vampiric family and a new child serial killer peddling supernaturally charged masks of death, what will Jerri do?
I hope she figures out how to convince grumpy old Barnes to show her the ropes before these converging threats tie it into a noose and scream red herring! Don’t forget to support your local comic store or visit your favorite artists and creators at cons. As always, stay geeky, share the network, and don’t forget to catch me on the latest episode of Comics’N’Poptarts.
Michael J. Florio
Michael is a versatile creative professional, excelling as a comic writer, editor, and screenwriter. He holds notable credits at Advent Comics, Grok Comics, Champion Comics, Alter Ego Arts, and Super Serious Comics, Mazzi Productions not including his own projects like Wild Oni and Iron Jaguar. Aside from being an internationally published editor, Michael has been the editor-in-chief at Inked Studios, where he’s assisted on over 40 crowdfunding campaigns, contributing to projects like Exiled (Wesley Snipes), Redempt1on (Austin St. John), and Bleeding Pulp (Justin Gray). Holding degrees from the University of Full Sail, Michael resides in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he hosts the Comics’N’Poptarts podcast and actively engages with the Mississippi Gulf Coast Writers Guild Chapter, sharing comic expertise. Beyond his creative pursuits, he enjoys family time, storytelling, film analysis, comic reading, and honing voice acting for future prospects.
