Samuel Stern’s world is in a phase of revolutions, with continuous revelations that are bringing to light many details that allow us to discover what lies behind the “shadow”.
In this new book: “The Father”, with drawings by Daniele Miano and screenplay by Marco Savegnago and Massimiliano Filadoro, published by Bugs Comics, we delve into the unknown and mysterious depths of Samuel’s demonic counterpart: Samael
After the events of the last issue: “The Green Horse”, Samuel is together with Albin Ryden, the herald who, after being abandoned by the shapeless, he who is also called “The Faceless” or “The Primordial Evil, allies with Red and leads him to Ray, an occultist, as an Apocalypse is taking place in Stern, and it’s like a bomb that needs to be defused and that’s why we need to find Samael. The latter is the demon angel, the first demon born from a man, and is the only heresiarch that the formless cannot control and does not fight.
The shapeless man considers himself the father of the Edinburgh librarian, and is jealous of those he considers his children and therefore around them there will always be someone possessed, immersed in the shadow that controls them, therefore close to Samuel there will be someone unsuspecting. Suspicion falls on his daughter Lily, to be sure that this person is possessed he must have him read an invocation that Samael cannot escape.
Samuel goes to Saint Mary’s where his daughter has asked to be locked up in the dungeon, being accompanied by the Mother Superior…
An engaging number, full of twists, in which through frightening visions, Samel’s origins and the purposes of the Informe are revealed. Engaging tables, thanks also to a precise and realistic design, with attention to detail to create an oppressive atmosphere, in a context of suspense that does not reveal anything except by reading page after page, in which the plot focuses on the existence and the birth of the shadow, in a struggle that has continued since the dawn of time.
A story in which horror, in this case the formless, insinuates itself into unsuspecting people, so much so that there are characters who play a role in the story that is anything but decorative, this leads the reader to feel troubled, as no one can be considered innocent. However, we remain dismayed with the last table, in which the father-daughter relational dynamics take on unpredictable drifts, transforming into a very powerful weapon that not even the shapeless man had foreseen and which he finds himself powerless for the moment.