Review — Wander Through Strange, Snow-Covered Landscapes With ‘Dark Pyramid’ #2

Welcome to the table,

There is something about survival stories set in the snow that feel so much more dangerous than many other settings. Something about the combination of snow that you can sink into slowing you down and the frigid cold that serves as a ticking clock leaching away your warmth until you succumb to hypothermia and eventual death. Even more than that, the number of predators that are adapt at surviving subfreezing temperatures who, with tooth and claw, can make short work of soft human skin make it a struggle to navigate an artic landscape and survive.

When you add strange eldritch horrors to the mix, you get a recipe for something truly terrifying, like Mad Cave Studios’ Dark Pyramid. Let’s get into it.

The series is written by Paul Tobin with art by PJ Holden and colors by Sara Colella. This second issue picks up with Becca, our protagonist, searching for her influencer boyfriend Hooky, who has gone missing while exploring an ancient temple site he stumbled across on Denali, arguably Alaska’s most famous mountain.

Becca is accompanied by her newly met ally Shailene. The pair finds themselves in a cabin being attacked by a strange, spindly-limbed humanoid creature who speaks in cryptic word clusters, making the whole thing even more unnerving.

Becca and Shailene escape the cabin through a window and head out into the snow with this odd and awful thing lumbering behind them. At one point, a deer runs across the creature’s path, and it simply lifts the deer above its head and rips it in half before continuing after Becca and Shailene.

<<<SPOILERS FOLLOW>>>

The first big twisty moment occurs when Becca and Shailene come across poles stuck into the ground with glowing lights on the end. These bits of tech somehow hem in the creature who wanders off, not wanting to, or not being able to, cross them.

The addition of a modern tech device that can slow or stop a seemingly ancient hungering entity caught me off guard. It took a story that I assumed was going in one direction and splintered it into a webwork of possibilities.

The story continues to a house party of influencers all engaging in various clickbait material. These kids are set upon by the odd creature who rips a good number of them apart before, out of nowhere, a para-military force shows up, led by a guy named Anton.

Anton deploys his troops to kill any survivors who saw the creature and to wrangle the creature, and the issue draws to a close.

As far as unique, strange stories set in real-world locations featuring eldritch entities and survivors who have very little information to go on, Dark Pyramid is a solid standout in the horror space. The world that is being created in these first two issues feels deep and lived in, making this world ripe for other stories in the setting.

Until next time, I have yet to get my hands on issue #3, even though this issue itself was out in April. As soon as I can remedy that, I will catch you all up to speed on this oddly charming and charmingly odd book.