"Ravencroft #4" Comic Review

The terrors kept hidden under the Ravencroft Institute have risen. They've taken over the facility and are working to break John Jameson in search of Jonas Ravencroft's journal. There's no way Misty Knight is going down without a fight, even if that means getting some help from Norman Osborn.

There are some really awesome ideas introduced in Ravencroft. They just don't seem to come together into a cohesive story. This is the penultimate issue of this mini-series and we're just now learning the origins of these creepy vampire creatures that have been living under the building even after it was destroyed and rebuilt. Think about that for a second. This whole thing was recently torn to the ground and built up from scratch and somehow there's still a secret basement full of monsters. Weird, right?

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Artist Angel Unzueta's designs for these things are disturbing to say the least. They're not traditional vampires. They're strange, distorted lumps of flesh that vaguely resemble the bloodsucking creatures of legend. This is especially true of their leader, who's like a vampiric version of Jabba the Hutt. This contrasts with the sickly forms of his followers who appear as malnourished demons.

The dark colors of the monsters contrast with the bright fluorescent lights of the institute. These are beings that live in the shadows. They're not used to the light, so they look even more unnatural here. Colorist Rachelle Rosenberg makes a nice juxtaposition between the terrors of the deep mixed with the shining gleam of the place that should be healing them.

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Since we dig into the origins of these monsters, we also hear from their perspective. Letterer Joe Sabino shows these captions in green-outlined caption boxes, differentiating them from what we've seen in earlier issues. It's odd to have the story switch to this point of view for the first time, so it's a rather jarring jumping into this chapter.

Ravencroft has a tremendous amount of potential, however I don't think it will come together in time with only one issue left. A whole lot of ideas have been introduced in a short period, yet none of them are really paying off. That might be different if there was more space to tell the story or a more focused effort. I can only hope that we'll see some of these horrific elements embraced further down the line in the Marvel Universe, as we've seen some great spooky stuff in this super hero world over the past few years.