Summary
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time #1Horror fans who have never played theArkham Horrortabletop game or read the H.P. Lovecraft stories that inspired it will still find plenty to love inDark Horse Comics' new adaptation,Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time. Based on the sprawling Cthulhu mythology,Arkham Horrorwas originally a board game turned tabletop franchise that has players explore Arkham, Massachusetts while investigating means to destroy an elder god. Like its inspiration, the franchise is a stylized fusion of 1920s private investigator tropes and otherworldly cult horror.
Since its original release, theArkham Horrorfranchise has inspired numerous books and expansions, and now it has its own comic series.Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Timeby Cullen Bunn and Andrea Mutti follows a young debutante and a hired PI as they investigate the disappearance of the woman’s sister following herabduction by an eldritch-worshipping cult.
While the first issue doesn’t show much of the dark magical aspects that readers know will follow in future installments,the series already promises a high-stakes adventure unafraid of delving into the monstrous horror it’s based on.
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Arkham HorrorLaunches With a Promising Beginning
The Inaugural Installment Honors Its Inspiration
Much like the original board game,Arkham Horror’s first issue capitalizes on the fish-out-of-water trope as the grizzled small-town private investigator, Joe Diamond, reluctantly accepts a contract with well-dressed, dual-pistol-wielding debutante, Jenny Barnes. After the issue establishes the series' initial set-up, it quickly abandons Joe’s mundane environment,instead plunging the duo into the depths of an abandoned monastery where the cult performed their last ritual.Feeling like an installment fromtheConjuringseries, the story sees the two heroes slowly delve deeper into the catacombs. There they discover a chamber containing forsaken members of the cult, nearly entirely drained of their life force.
There is hope that this series will be written with the same passion Lovecraft’s works have inspired for the last century.
The issue rapidly embraces tones of terror when Joe and Jenny are suddenly trapped in a storm of dust and demons right before the issue’s end. While only the beginning,Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Timepromises an exhilarating adventurewhile teasing a strong future of the many-tentacled multi-eyed horror that the Cthulhu mythos is known for.The inspiration’s mostpopular stories weren’t written by Lovecraft, but rather by the fan base his works garnered, and there is hope that this series will be written with the same passion Lovecraft’s works have inspired for the last century.
Arkham Horroris Sure to Get Scarier
Readers Should Keep an Eye Out for Future Releases
It’s hard to say now whether the serieswill have staying power amongDark Horse’s repertoire of macabre and horror comics, but it certainly has potential. The stylized art has the feel of ‘20s pulp magazines and the dialogue is quick and punchy. Even if the plot becomes a carbon copy of the Lovecraftian-inspired tales that have come before, the comic, at the very least, promises spectacle. For now, fans of horror and the Cthulhu mythos should definitely keep an eye out for future installments of theArkham Horrorseries fromDark Horse Comics.
Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time#1is now available from Dark Horse Comics.
