Wormwood Gentleman Corpse #4

Genre horror Author Ben Templesmith Publisher IDW Publishing External Links Official IDW Publishing Website

Ben Templesmith has an incredibly creative and imaginative mind. His fantastic otherworldly creations are clever and unique. They are entirely worthy of being placed on a canvas. With the completion of this four issue series, he has taken his creations and put them through a story that was enchanting in its effort but came up just a little short in some of the execution. Introduced in this issue is Maloch, a demon of great power with a knack for taking over other dimensions. Unfortunately, we failed to have the motivation of Buer ever explained to us and the ending was extremely disappointing and filled with holes.

We can break down the issue into two parts. The first part is Buer's ceremony to bring Maloch into Wormwood's dimension to take it over. Buer shows us a power we have not seen up to this point as he extends powerful tentacles of an astral sort from his body. Illuminated in a bright blue, they are able to grab things as well as cause damage as evidenced by one tentacle entering Wormwood's body and exiting through his mouth. Buer uses his power to distract our quartet from interfering with the fifty aides who have the power together to open a dimensional gate, which they successfully do, through which Maloch can enter.

Even though we hear some of the information in order for this to make sense to us, we fail to get the full background that we need. Why has Buer left the dimension in which he originates in order to take over this one? Has something driven him to seek a power that even he does not possess? Where did he have previous discussions with Maloch to make these plans? All of these answers would a have helped make the story clearer and the reader without as many questions.

The second part of the issue deals with the confrontation between Wormwood's quartet and Maloch. And that is just what it really is, a confrontation. The only fighting that goes on is between Pendulum and Maloch when Wormwood asks Pendulum to take it into second gear. Of course he readily obeys, he is after all a robot, but why did Pendulum even have to be sent in an attack upon Maloch when all that was required was simply asking Maloch not to destroy this dimension. We gather from the verbal exchanges between Wormwood and Buer and Wormwood and Maloch that there are hierarchies of demons and other entities spread across a number of dimensions of which only two are mentioned. The higher-level entities, which include Wormwood and Maloch, reside in certain dimensions but usually not the same ones as they respect the territory that each roams. Informing Maloch that he is currently residing here now is key to resolving the whole eat the dimension mess.

The lack of an inter-dimensional battle left me a little disappointed. I was expecting much more. However, in Mr. Robinson's defense, it was a very clever way to solve the dispute. Surely we have all wondered why more demons and larger than life entities have not had more contact with each other. In this instance, we see that these have and that there is a common bond that allows them to solve this incident rationally. Buer has failed because he has not done his homework to make sure that he faces no opposition. Perhaps because his type is "like farts in an elevator," Buer slips away without even a second thought from our quartet. He should never have been allowed to get that far. All those guns that they brought were hardly even fired in his direction, especially after he pulled out those neon blue tentacles, but slip away he does.

There were a number of questions that were inadequately answered during this run. For instance, we still never found out about Phoebe's wing tattoos. Just how do those work and what is the sisterhood that gave them to her? Pendulum's lack of giblets makes much more sense now that we know he is a robot. But what were the pills that Buer used to germinate the tentacled ones and where did he get them? How does Trotsky fit into Wormwood's circle of friends/acquaintances and what other types of cases does he study as a ghost detective? How does Medusa's dimension relate exactly to Buer and his tentacles? I hope we can get some of these answers in future volumes. Not having them left holes in the story as it progressed that had me scratching my head on more than one occasion trying to figure out things.

Templesmith does interject a number of witty bits into the story to great effect. The lack of a big battle is probably the biggest joke, but other humorous bits include when Maloch is interrupted by a cell phone call from his wife or mistress, we are not told which; Phoebe's response to Wormwood when he asks for a lift; noting that Maloch is a major god of darkness and that shooting him will not make a difference; and the explanation of Pendelum's capabilities against demons which are then noted to be of no effect on Maloch. Ben's dry humor has been prevalent throughout the run and has been one of the strong points to enjoy each issue.

Templesmith's art is unmatched in anything being published in comics today. IDW Publishing is to be commended for taking a chance on taking such a reach on this project. With all the fellow artists contributing artwork that was included in each issue and the interest that clearly exists from his website, Ben has a fan following that has likely expanded now thanks to this artistic endeavor. Since we have already heard of another run in January, it would seem that this has been somewhat profitable for IDW as well. I look forward to seeing if Templesmith improves upon his storytelling to match his artwork. After all, nasty leprechauns just sound intriguing.