The Rain Has Stopped in Dark Ark #11
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
A dove flies to tell Noah that there is dry land for his ark to find, but the bird is killed. Meanwhile, Selah is in labor upon Shrae’s ark, and Kruul’s mate, Frurae, is giving birth as well. Both children make it, but there is something wrong with Selah’s child. It resembles a vampire. During Nex’s revolt, some vampires fed upon Selah, and it has come back to haunt her. Shrae knows who can potentially help, and he gets the drowned people to retrieve this person.
Dark Ark #11 begins the third act of Cullen Bunn and Juan Doe’s biblical horror series. Shrae is now a grandfather to a monster, which seems appropriate. However, the sorcerer will not let this lie, and he must turn to a foe to save Selah’s child. You can probably guess who, but I still won’t spoil it here.
The portion with Kruul’s child isn’t elaborated upon this issue. The only thing we really learn is that Kruul and his mate do not get along, and he kinda wants to eat his kid.
There isn’t any real fallout over the death of Echidna in this issue, which is almost disappointing. The death of the monster god seems like it’s the kind of thing that should leave shockwaves.
The death of the signal dove, however, is returned to at the end of the comic. It’s not just a non sequitur; there is something going on there. Again, though, I will restrain from spoiling the specifics, even if I’m not entirely sure what’s happening there either.
Juan Doe’s artwork continues to render this world of monsters and death in a delightfully bleak and inhuman manner. The human characters tend to be bulky with their joints obscured to a degree. The monsters look great, with Kruul the manticore being a favorite among them. Doe’s color work is excellent, too. He gives the world a dark shade that hangs over every character like a pall. The new creatures look especially unnerving thanks to their especially dark pigmentation.
Dark Ark #11 is an exciting start for the new arc as well as a good cooldown issue after the intense #10. The rain has stopped, new threats arise, and old enemies return. Shrae continues to barely hold dominion over this boat of monsters, even as his duty seems to be coming to a close. This one gets a recommendation. Check it out.
Dark Ark #11 comes to us from writer Cullen Bunn, artist, color artist, and cover artist Juan Doe, letterer Ryane Hill, and variant cover artist Mike Rooth.
