The End Of A Grisly Journey: Whispering Dark #4 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Hannah, Watts, and Norton have wandered into some kind of massive underground cavern. At its center stands a large, black obelisk. They wander inside in the hopes of finding answers or, at least, an escape. At the top of the structure, they find something altogether different. It taunts and laughs at them, and it may just kill them all.
Whispering Dark #4 brings the Dark Horse horror miniseries to its conclusion, and, like many good horror tales, it leave you wondering what was real and what wasn’t.
The story transpires while Hannah gives her report in the narration. From the outset, what she describes is vastly different from what we see. She talks of snowy, mountainous slopes while the reader sees rocky structures and the black obelisk.
This is accompanied by flashes of events we’ve already seen but with drastically different details from what we saw originally. Hannah was always self-doubting and flighty, and this issue wants us to realize how unreliable a narrator she has always been.
The religious allegory takes a more grim turn, as we are left to wonder what sort of divinity Hannah worshipped or if one genuinely has a choice of what they worship.
There are no options for a happy ending here, but you might be surprised at how dark it goes.
Tomas Aira’s artwork finishes strong, bringing this bleak and bloody final chapter to life in beautifully grim ways. The obelisk stands as a cruel forebearer of things to come, and the blood and violence are rendered with grace and skill. The color work is heavy and drips with malice and beauty all its own.
Whispering Dark #4 is a grand and gripping finale to this tale of war and worship. Christofer Emgard and Tomas Aira fired on all cylinders from beginning to end, and the final product is on par with recent greats like Infidel and A Walk Through Hell. Whispering Dark #4 and the whole series receive a glowing recommendation. Give it a read.
Whispering Dark #4 comes to us from writer Christofer Emgard, artist and cover artist Tomas Aira, and letterer Mauro Mantella.