REVIEW: Something Is Killing The Children #13 - Dangerous And More Than A Little Scary

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Something Is Killing The Children #13 Review

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Nothing puts the firehose on the flaming dumpster fire of 2020 quite like watching monsters maim small children.

Issue thirteen of this insane roller coaster that is Something Is Killing The Children opens with a team effort: The House of Slaughter crew slicing their way through a monster. Where has all this teamwork been while Erica has been in Archer’s Peak, fighting monsters, wrangling local sheriffs and saving/using the town’s children as bait all by herself?

While her House of Slaughter counterparts ruthlessly slit the throats of innocent townspeople as a way to rid the world of witnesses (Cecelia comes off as a Karen who was given a bandana, knife and free range to deal with the manager), Erica becomes the issues moral center, pointing out that it was hiding the evidence, not saving the town, that brought the bureaucrats out of their mansion.

Something Is Killing The Children #13 Story

This issue treats readers to the classic horror trope of baddies coming to town, shutting off electricity and phone service, and hunting humans while the monsters still lurk. The House of Slaughter ringleader, Maxine, (next cosplay, please!) doesn’t seem to have a preference whether she’s hacking up monsters or locals, her cohorts follow without qualm. They’re set on a bloody, brutal “full containment” of the situation in Archer’s Peak.

The action and horror is juxtaposed with Erica, Bian and James. Navigating in the back woods, we see Erica behaving in an almost nurturing way as James recalls swing sets and birthday parties before it all went wrong. It feels like an excellent metaphor for our last memories of pre-pandemic normality, even while Erica is preparing the kids to be used as bait.

Something Is Killing The Children #13 Art

We must always give reverence to the art. While experienced writer James Tynion IV is reliable, the story has had inevitable ups and downs. The art by Werther Dell’Edera, however, has remained consistently incredible and continues to deliver in issue thirteen. Crazy eyes. Bloody knives. Bright red-orange blood splatters against dark blue and black backdrops. You will stop multiple times just to take all the eye candy in.

We finally get more mysterious sidekick action! After warning Bian and James that this is going to be “dangerous and more than a little scary,” Erica tells her smoking little alien friend to cut the crap and “begin.” And begin he does, as the last panel treats readers to the backside of the octopus like stuffed toy in his true form of giant, orange and tentacled glory.

REVIEW: Something Is Killing the Children #13 - Dangerous and More Than a Little Scary 2

What he looks like in entirety will have to wait until issue fourteen, and we’re left with so many questions! Will the House of Slaughter really wipe out a whole town in their quest for containment? Will they at least bother to take out the monsters too? Can Erica defeat the monsters AND her own counterparts?

Is Bian going to be a serial killer when she grows up (YES). And finally, when will Werther Dell’Edera make Erica Slaughter merch and prints so we can get our own piece of the badass monster slayer?

Pick up Something Is Killing The Children #13 from your local comic shop.

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