By Jonathan Edwards
Let me start by saying that, after reading this, last issue's "part 2" feels even more pointless. I thought that its inclusion meant two parallel stories going on, meaning that this month we'd get a "part 3" following Lizzie and a "part 4" jumping back to whatever was going on with those other characters I don't care about. So you can imagine my surprise when that didn't happen, and in its place we get a completely disconnected short one-shot about a guy who sells corpses to a doctor for research or whatever. And yet, as far as I'm concerned, that actually worked way better. The logic is simple; instead of changing practically everything but telling us it's (somehow) still part of the story, we get two distinct stories for the price of one. And with that short rant completed, the review may now commence.
She Wolf #6 begins with Lizzie smoking and loitering at a 7-11, some days after turning into a werewolf to murder Pam at the end of issue #5. A couple of guys (I'm pretty sure the same two that also hit on her and Pam last time) invite her to a party. She accepts, and with her newly acquired bloodthirst far from quenched, we know it's not going to take long for things to get real bad for everyone else. This issue also features the return of Gabby (as well as Nikki the vampire). Although, her presence and later actions do make me realize that this arc isn't really Lizzie's story the way the first arc was Gabby's. But, that's okay. A story dealing with Gabby having to confront the impact (both literal and metaphorical) that her whole werewolf episode had on her younger sister still has plenty of potential to be interesting.
As previously stated, this issue's backup story is about John Morrow, a grave robber that sells bodies to the local Doctor Bruegel. However, the good doctor takes issue with how consistently damaged Morrow's "wares" have become, and he insists that the next one be in perfect condition. The whole thing ends up being a dark but fun little morality play, complete with more straightforward storytelling from Tommaso. Patrick Dean provides the art with this one, and he brings a completely different aesthetic to it. Dean's character designs feel like the kind you'd find in a webcomic, and he uses a great deal of shading for adding detail and mood while eschewing color for black and white. It all comes together quite well and fits the tone of the story to a T.
There's not much else to say about the main story's art other than "it's Rich Tommaso." He's still doing his thing, and you either like it or you don't. In particular, I quite liked the identical two-page spreads of either sister smoking. They harkened back to the more expressionistic coloring that I was missing last time. We also get a healthy dose of his werewolf and demon designs which are both neat and weird, and they sometimes have dicks too.
While I did like this issue better than the last, I can't imagine how lost someone who hadn't been reading since the beginning would be if they picked this up. I don't even think I can really recommend this on the merit of the art alone. So, if you've been reading, this is probably one of the better issues and worth grabbing yourself. I think this is going to be my last review for this series. I'll probably keep reading, but unless something super crazy happens that recontextualizes everything, I really don't know what else I can say about this book that I haven't already.
Score: 3/5
She Wolf #6
Writer: Rich Tommaso
Artists: Rich Tommaso, Patrick Dean
Publisher: Image Comics