Advance Review: ‘Something Is Killing The Children’ #41 Kicks Off New Arc – Painfully Slowly
by Tom Smithyman
After a series of one-off issues, Something is Killing the Children returns to longer-form storytelling with issue #41. Normally, that should give fans something to cheer about, but given the overlong most recent arc – one that meandered for over a dozen issues without a satisfying conclusion – readers may instead be cautious. 
If the first issue of this arc – dubbed “All Her Monsters” – is any indication, they have every right to be. This introductory chapter is all exposition and little else.
Instead of picking up directly after the last arc, writer James Tynion IV wisely gives us another look into monster-fighter Erica Slaughter’s past. She’s now a junior member of the House of Slaughter’s black masks, apprenticed to Jessica. The exhausted pair has just dispatched a monster in New Jersey (insert joke here) and learn they are going to be sent to take care of another creature at a ski resort.
If you’re looking for more of a story than that, look elsewhere, because almost nothing else happens in this issue. There’s practically nothing for artist Werther Dell’Edera to do here, save show us what a younger Erica looks like. Frankly, it’s a waste of his talent.
History may show that this slow start was the beginning of a slow burn – the amuse bouche to a satisfying meal. I truly hope that is the case. The first 15-20 issues of this series were some of the best of the decade, helping to catapult Tynion to comics stardom. Since then, the Slaughterverse has grown tiresome as Tynion’s attention has turned to other projects.
So if this series’ recent history is any indication, it will be the start of a frustratingly long and frustrating story arc that will turn off more readers than it will attract.
Something is Killing the Children #41 will be available at comic book shops on April 30, from Boom! Studios.
Overview
As this now venerable series kicks off a new story arc, it slips into some old bad habits. The pacing is glacial and offers no exciting tease for any action to come. Perhaps its greatest sin is that it doesn’t take advantage of its great artist, Werther Dell’Edera.
