jayeinacross

This is the final issue in Klarion the Witch Boy’s Seven Soldiers series. It opens with Klarion having just returned to Limbo Town (the underground land where the Puritan descendant witches live) from what they call Blue Rafters (the above-ground world). At the end of last issue, Klarion was convinced by his cat familiar Teekl to return to Limbo Town to warn the other witches about Melmoth coming to take over Limbo Town.

Needless to say, they do not believe him.

However, they’re given quite a surprise when Melmoth and his soldiers drive a huge digging machine into Limbo Town. Melmoth, by the way, is extremely disturbing.

Anyway, Beulah, Klarion’s sister, cuts him free and tells him to go ring the Sabbat bells nine times, which calls their dead, the grundy-men, back to fight for them and protect them.

Melmoth explains that he is a Sheeda-king, and, to quote him, “...had spider-sex with all your ancestors, you know. All those hot Puritan girls. They thought I was the devil and they crawled underground to have our babies.”

Ugh. He’s such a creep.

He orders his men to round everyone up...

Klarion has rung the Sabbat bells nine times to summon the grundy-men. And Beulah is one fierce girl.

The grundy-men kill some of the soldiers, but eventually they just get ripped in half because they’re corpses up against dudes with machine guns. Klarion encounters the dying Submissionary Judah, who was the religious leader of Limbo Town. He passes on the role of Submissionary to Klarion before he dies, allowing Klarion to combine with Teekl to become the Horrigal, which is a fairly horrendous monster.

Meanwhile, Melmoth is so creepy.

As the Horrigal, Klarion and Teekl easily defeat the soldiers, and Melmoth leaves, but Klarion and Teekl can’t separate. But as Klarion’s mother repeats (a reflection of what she said in an earlier issue), “The witch-women know secrets the men never learn.” And she heals him.

Klarion prepares to leave Limbo Town for Blue Rafters once more, despite his mother’s wishes that he stay and become Submissionary, Limbo Town’s leader.

And Beulah is just hilarious.

I really love Klarion. He stands out in the dreary Limbo Town as someone who isn't satisfied with his life, who doesn't believe the Submissionaries' religious beliefs, who wants to find a different world beyond their underground town that hasn't changed in hundreds of years.

The whole Bleak family is just pretty awesome, actually. Even though Klarion's dad is dead, and Beulah and Klarion's mother were at first taken in by the religious Submissionary, they turned out really awesome.