Castle Full of Blackbirds #4: The Devil Falls Flat

As CASTLE FULL OF BLACKBIRDS comes to a close, it’s hard to find any worth in its narrative.

At a conceptual level, this series should have been one conquering the sales charts. It’s a story set in a magical school ripe with mystery, spinning out of the Hellboy universe. This is a pitch that prints its own money but fails to be anything special because of its constrained and poorly utilized four-issue setup.

The development of the hidden antagonist, mystery, character relationships, suspense, and protagonists fall flat. There needed to be more time or room within the pages of this series to craft a satisfying world or story. The mystery is rooted in the school’s history but is rushed and telegraphed without any suspense. Students are disappearing, but they are the only people that I’ve been built up with meaning by the writing team.

Sometimes the book reads more like a plot summary than a narrative, killing any potential for reader connection. Things. Just. Happen with a narrative setup or more explanation. Why should I, as a reader, care for any of the relationships in this book when they are given little time to form? Essential points of emotional background for our characters are either glazed over or non-existent. Miss Brook and Sara May’s relationship is at the series’ center but is under-baked, never going deeper than teacher and student. Dynamics between characters are boring for the most part, missing anything of interest because,  as I go on with the tenacity of a broken record, they had to be rushed. A lot can be done with very little time, but an insistence on over-stuffing the series with concepts leads to little done with it. This leads to issue four being a lifeless finale, where the team struggles to find a balance on what its focus is. Is it the secret plot brewing within the school? Is it about Sara May’s education as a young witch? Intertwining these things is the solution, and they sure do try but fails in execution.

Issue #4 suffers the most from these issues. The climax between Sara and the headmaster, revealed to be the devil, is not the slightest bit of a satisfying ending to this series. He never felt like a true antagonist for her as he never got in the way of her goals. His evil machinations regarding the abducted students matter not, as there was no relationship between her or those other students that were well-written enough to matter.

I want to remind you that the plotting here is not the issue. Many of the ideas presented in CASTLE FULL OF BLACKBIRDS are interesting. A secret devil running a run-down school for girls with magical powers? Said school is rife with supernatural intrigue, an orphaned main character with a gift of prophecy? The dilemma that Miss Brook has to face regarding serving the previously mentioned devil and training Sara May to her full ability? Of all these things are perfect ingredients. With the story ending off on a cliffhanger, the team has a chance to fully realize key narrative needs regarding suspense and characterization if they move forward with a sequel series.

While art is subjective, there is no doubt that a lack of visual charm brought this book down tenfold for me. Pencil styling is subjective, but the art for all four issues was inconsistent, flat, and lacking charm. Character expressions feel fake, eyes lacking any soul. In its favor, the art is clear and concise. The blame for its lifelessness is partially shared by the colors, which lacked shading, swapping out atmospheric color pallets for a heavy reliance on black shadows and standard colors one could drag and drop in from Microsoft Paint. Wylie Beckert’s cover art is stunning but not representative of the story you receive in this book. While she displays a mythological, almost Vertigo-esque story, the book is more low-rent Archie than fantastical.