Injection #15 - Image Comics

INJECTION No. 15, November 2017

Bringing the comic book series’ third expletive-saturated, gratuitously violent story arc to a sudden conclusion, the contents of Issue Fifteen of “Injection” is arguably best described as a carnal house of chilling, bloody slaughter, which sees a good dozen Cornish inhabitants first torn to ragged shreds of flesh and organs, and then reduced to little more than a few skeletal remains, simply because they were out walking, drinking in their local pub, or at home in bed, at the wrong time in the wrong place. Indeed, these supernatural attacks upon the innocent come so very thick and fast, that the opening quarter of this twenty-page publication doesn’t contain a single word or sound effect, and simply relies upon artist Declan Shalvey to pencil gory mutilation after graphic disembowelment…

Fortunately, this savage assault upon the senses does finally cease once Emma Louise Beaufort drives her boss up to Mellion Moor and Warren Ellis actually provides his leading ladies with a few pages of dialogue. True, the Eagle Award-winner disappointingly permeates the pair’s explanatory interplay with a plethora of colourful metaphors, but such a colourful conversion is perhaps understandable given that their vehicle is being repeatedly slashed by giant luminescent phantom claws, and instead of manoeuvring away from the source of such lethal evil power, the duo are purposely heading straight towards it; “Put me right next to that digger thing. I’m going to have to jump from the car. You stay inside.”

What is a little hard to digest though is that the key to closing the Cold House and the Other World’s access to our plane of existence, is for Brigid Roth to simply knock over one of the ancient monument’s standing stones with an excavator. This act of all-too necessary ‘archaeological vandalism’ seemingly stops the Spriggan Town overspill into Mellion instantly and subsequently causes the rest of the stone site to come crashing down around the ears of the FPI (Force Projection International) team. So simplistic a solution really is bewildering, and begs the question as to just why the incredibly clever “computer geek” didn’t decide to remove one (or all) of the menhirs when she initially realised how deadly the circle was and bring this harrowing adventure to a close a few comics earlier?

Writer: Warren Ellis, Artist: Declan Shalvey, and Color: Jordie Bellaire