Advance Review: Confronting The Angel Killer In `Blood Tree’ #6

For a fantastical story about a serial killer who preys on the families of other criminals – forcing them to wear angel’s wings and making them jump off of skyscrapers and bridges – Blood Tree’s ending is pretty routine. So routine that it puts the procedural in police procedural.

There’s the dedicated detective with a dark past. He’s haunted by loss. But that sacrifice only makes him more determined to find the killer. So he breaks the rules a bit and finally finds his man. In the end, he must decide between revenge and justice. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

The oddest part about the story is how mundane Peter J. Tomasi’s finale is. Until now, his scripts for this miniseries have been highly interesting and entertaining, if far-fetched. The final chapter, though, feels rushed and uninspired. It’s too bad, because it would have been interesting to let certain story elements play out a bit longer to ratchet up the tension.

The weakest part of the series has been Maxim Simic’s artwork – and that disturbing trend continues in this issue as well. His blocky character faces, complete with square jaws, aren’t detailed enough to show much emotion. We need the script to understand what is going through Detective Dario Azzaro’s mind, for example. Even the more detailed panels can look silly, as readers can actually see the bullet holes in victims.

(One particularly troubling panel – at least for veterans and other patriots – shows a mis-folded American flag being presented to a grieving family during a funeral. Do a little research!)

Tomasi tries to make up for the issue’s sins with a minor twist at the end. With an ending you can see the set up coming from a mile away, it just doesn’t work – much like this conclusion to a once-promising series.

Blood Tree #6 will be available for purchase on July 5, 2023.