Fall of the House of Slaughter #1 Review

If you’ve never picked any of the titles up before, Something Is Killing The Children and spinoffs are about a world where fear can concentrate and manifest into monsters. The secretive Order of St. George exists to hide that information from the public and hunt those monsters, and the House of Slaughter is the most prestigious outpost of the organization in America. In Fall of the House of Slaughter though, they’ve seen better days. 

A critique of sclerotic institutions that fail to do much besides perpetuate themselves is at the heart of the Slaughterverse franchise, and this newest title centers that critique on Cecilia Slaughter. She’s the head of the White Mask Hunters and is looking to reshape the House into a ladder, and ascend to further power. The creative team of Tate Brombal (who has worked in this universe before), Adriano Turtulici, and Valentina Banjo Napolitano are all in sync here, and looking at this world through this new lens. This comic feels like seeing through Cecelia’s eyes: it’s high-class, theatrical, sharp at the edges. She herself looks elegant, even as she stalks around pages like a tiger in a tailored pantsuit. Her rival in this first issue, Colin, is introduced in his study, then preens in the mirror before allowing himself to be seen by his colleagues. The backdrops are often abstracted, but there are signs of old money all over: in the custom-made furniture, the cornices and pillars, and the sheer vastness of the building we’re inhabiting. Turtulici’s aesthetic reminds me of editorial illustration, like something you’d see on the cover of The New Yorker. Refined in its simplicity.

Institutions with exclusive membership can often become parallel little societies, with their own supply chains, governance, policing, and borders. Institutions like that may exist to serve the public, but within their walls, the needs of the people outside become distant concerns. We see both dynamics at play here: this is an openly hierarchical world, with Cecilia casually wielding her power, and she does not react well to the bubble bursting. She’s making a power play now that the Old Dragon of the House is dying, and everyone can tell. The fact that kids are dying out in the real world is an inconvenience, or worse, an embarrassment, as representatives from the Great House are inbound. There is a gruesome page near the climax of the issue showing us this carnage, and it’s made all the more disquieting by the knowledge that the people “in charge” of fixing this regard the loss of life so coldly. 

This comic is also about the drama of it all. The pleasure here is in Tate Brombal’s casually-venomous dialogue, in the power-plays between various characters. It’s in seeing Dell’Edera, Turtulici and Napolitano bring out the messy human emotions in these people who have supposedly honed themselves into monsters. When Maxine (a newly-trained Black Mask) starts to lose her cool, the panel grid warps and bends. When Cecelia’s temper reaches a fever-pitch, the panel backgrounds are black, with her haloed in the same red as her eyes. The lettering is seamless, often overlapping characters and mimicking the texture of the inking.

The negotiation scene has something of the quality of watching a political debate; there are very real stakes, but also a base satisfaction that comes from seeing people snipe at each other across a table. It’s an interesting tone to take because Something Is Killing The Children isn’t like this. That book carries a grimy heaviness that fits being in the thick of all the fighting and grief. That’s the comic that cares about people having their lives destroyed by monsters that they can’t explain or even see. Fall of the House of Slaughter is about the people too caught up in institutional politicking to do their jobs and help anyone. 

The masks feel like a perfect illustration of this. In Something Is Killing The Children, a hunter is a fearsome figure with their mask on. Werther Dell’Edera draws them as jagged, graphic shapes that transform the wearer’s face into something inhuman. Here in Fall of the House of Slaughter, Turtulici draws the masks with ripples and creases. There’s always the impression of   a face visible under the mask, and long tails of loose fabric rest on shoulders or trail behind characters’ movements. It strikes me as a choice intended to bring these characters down to earth. Underneath all the ritual and pomp and circumstance, these are just people with too much power and not enough regard for others.

This is certainly a comic made for Slaughterverse die-hards. It references events from the main series and past spin-offs, and gives supporting characters a stage, some of whom didn’t even have speaking roles before now. I know I got a kick out of those allusions, and from the dramatic irony that comes from knowing so much about this world going in. If, however, you’re looking for court intrigue, themes of power and institutional decay, and artwork that stands out among contemporary comics, then this is a solid introduction to a deep, dark world.