At the end of last issue, Detective George Suttle was caught in a pickle, when he was surrounded and snared by anti-Young hooligans.  He was on the verge of being staked!  For the first time in this series, the prim and proper Suttle unleashes his vampire fury… yet still remains by the books.  He doesn’t feast on these thugs, he places them under arrest.  He then must pursue the mysterious poet named Salt, who either turns this entire book on its head or uses trickery (called magic) to severely throw Suttle off course.  At any rate, he gets away.

Due to Salt’s trickery, Suttle is shaken to his core and visits a church, seeking guidance.  He even plans to resign from his investigation, when words from his timid housemaid Louisa turn him around and relight his fire.  He prepares to go find Salt when his (human) assistant Bowes arrives and tells him rioting has broken out and the walls protecting them from the Restless (zombies) have collapsed!

I’m not sure what to make of Salt’s “reveal.”  If his words are true, this entire book just took a massive twist.  But as the issue progresses, Suttles seems to determine it was all a trick. But was it?

The art remains excellent.  The colors in this issue are the boldest they have been so far.  Initially, the colors are dark, as it’s night time, but when George “vamps out” his eyes and the rest of the environment burst into red and gold, the colors of fire, fitting also because of the escalating tension with the humans living there as they approach riot mode.  Then as Salt’s devilish words take root in the minds of both George and the reader, things take on a poisonous green tone.  When Bowes arrives and George starts to come to, it fades back to red tones.  Kudos to colorist Patricia Mulvihill!

I’ve praised this series up and down since it started and this was the wildest issue so far.  There’s only one issue left and I REALLY want to know what happens!  I’m on the edge of my seat to determine who did what and why!  There have been so many surprises and insinuations, I don’t know what’s real and what’s a red herring.  Man, hope the denoument lives up to the rest of this series!

 

THE NEW DEADWARDIANS #7
Written by Dan Abnett
Art and Cover by I.N.J. Culbard