Review: The October Faction #5- Good idea, wrong book

Writer: Steve Niles
Artist: Damien Worm
Publisher: IDW
Released: 25th March 2015

There is one good idea in this month’s ‘The October Faction,’ but apart from that it’s just the usual combination of a story with a muddled tone that features some very cool, gothic artwork.

The good idea is that a bloke who turns into a werewolf is suffering from terminal cancer, but that it doesn’t appear to affect him when he’s a wolf, it's just the human side that’s done for. The obvious solution to the problem then is to stay as a permanent wolf. That’s interesting, but I don’t see how it’s going to be well used in this story that is ostensibly about a jokey Adam’s family/Munsters group and their inconsequential, don’t take all of this too seriously, adventures.

Put the wolf/cancer thing in another book, a book that has a serious tone, take the same artist with you (the fantastic Damien Worm) and then you’ll have something that would really be worth following. Perhaps the wolf blood can be used to cure cancer? But does that blood have other side (murder related) effects?

Do you see what I mean? It’s a good idea isn’t it? It has loads of possibilities, and you could do an entire little series about it. But having that idea in this book as it is, with the comedy tone, and the feeling that nothing really matters, I don’t like to say this, but it’s just not working.

This is particularly evident in issue #5. The book concludes with a cliff-hanger where one of the main characters is put in a life or death situation. That’s a big deal, right? Well, it should be.  It should have a huge, dramatic impact, but because of the casual tone of the book the impact is negligible. You can’t take it seriously, because the book isn’t serious. The entire tone of the narrative is silly, light and inconsequential. You can’t get involved in it, and you can’t take any threats to the protagonists seriously, because they themselves are not written seriously.

Getting emotionally engaged in this book would be like getting worried about Wile. E Coyote as he flaps his arm and falls helplessly to the bottom of the mountain. You don’t worry about poor old Wile. E because he’s a cartoon. He’ll be fine, don’t worry about it. That’s the same feeling I get with the characters in this book, the only difference is that the Roadrunner cartoon is funny, whilst this book is just a big old muddle.

I don’t understand what the writer is going for here, or what I am supposed to make of it all. It confuses me. I don’t understand what it’s trying to be. It’s not funny enough to be a dark comedy, and not interesting or emotionally involving enough to be a drama, plus it looks spooky and creepy, but the story isn’t scary at all.

I love the dark, atmospheric, spooky art in this book, but I can’t pretend that it’s a superior comic book just for the art alone. Take away the great art from this book, and what do you have?  Let’s be honest. It isn’t great. It’s okay, but in a comic book market flooded with okay isn’t it about time that we started to ask for something a bit better?


Rating: 5/10 (Plodding script, but I loved the art, as I always do with Mr. Worm)