And just like that Mignola takes us from the graveyard to the battlefield as Baltimore: Empty Graves finally picks up. 1920s Constantinople, a great setting for any adventure story, even better if it’s filled with witches and their summoned creatures. We get to skip the anthology stories from the first two issues and jump straight back into Baltimore’s search for The Red King. In search of the Blood Red Witch, Baltimore and crew stumble upon a war torn city that is being tortured by witchcraft. As the remaining humans in this region of the world still continue to feud about political power, The Red Witch is busy planting her seed. As some of the royal family flees the city they are beset upon by a fungus creature that emerges from their car’s engine, infecting them with its roots. Baltimore immediately sets about burning the infected as well as the creature itself. When they finally reach the Princess who they were trying to save from the city’s dark 
magic infestation, it turns out that she is in fact the mother or some other relation to the Blood Red Witch. So, everyone in Baltimore except the main characters are either monsters, witches, or really fucked, it’s a pretty grim world that Mignola has created. After a heated battle with the witch her soul escapes through the ceiling and the royal guards (who think Baltimore just assassinated their Princess) come crashing through the door, ready to fight. The crew escapes and follows their last lead, finding the body of an ancient sultan in a deep crypt that might reveal some hidden clue. After much searching they find his mummified corpse, only to discover that he is speaking to them about where to go next.
Alright, so first of all I’m glad we’re back in the thick of it, but the pacing in this issue is kind of crazy. As always I respect Mignola and Golden’s storytelling structure, but this issue felt very rushed. Last we knew we were slowly and somberly going through each of the newer characters’ backstories. Now all of a sudden we’re in Constantinople fighting tree people and killing witches. Admittedly the entire thing is very Baltimore and in keeping with the tradition of a Mignola comic, it’s really fun to read. If you’ve been paying close attention to this comic you shouldn’t have a problem following along. If you’ve just been scanning the latest issues for blood and gore, well, you might be a bit more confused. The bottom line is pretty simple: Baltimore needs to stop the Red King from destroying the world and will probably stab him through the heart or some melodramatic thing. Sometimes the how doesn’t matter so much as the what or where. For me Baltimore is as much about the entire experience as it is the story. I love seeing the dark world that Mignola has put us into. It’s like if A Series of Unfortunate Events had zombies and vampires in it. Overall this issue was fun, and now that we’re past the surprise scene change, I hope we’re in for a good couple of issues!
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The writing on this issue is really good. It succeeds in the places that Slab kind of stumbles. That’s the only downside is that these two series are towing a fine line of information and characters. I worry that I won’t need to read both in the future because I’m not a fan of the college kids in Slab and I get all the characters I like in Medic. The one thing this particular series does better than the other books centered around the hospital, is make it feel like we’re in a hospital. The other titles tend to be in labs or in the outside encampment, but Medic is in the actual hospital and so we see the mayhem that’s spilling through the doors.
Soule revels a little in his references to math (a character's pet is named 'boolean', the word 'theory' is dropped repeatedly), but there's no specificity. The world and characters are so generic that even a well-researched presentation of some aspect of math. Having spent some time in that world, I can tell you that while dull in places, upper level mathematic encompasses some very interesting concept and methodologies that could make for some interesting story work (check out Ted Chiang's short story 'Division by Zero' if you don't believe me). But Soule opts for something much easier here, with a few concepts that remain mostly unexplained and never very interesting.
The pacing for this issue is a little hectic. We spend almost too much time with the college students and they don’t particularly say anything that’s important. Then we spend very little time with Grimes and Kifo. That and some of the info about the alien doppelgänger isn’t revealed in this series, I would recommend reading Medic for the rest of that info as it seems quite relevant here. Medic and Slab have a weird back and forth of info or they overlap so much I just think they do.
Many reviewers agreed that the first few parts to “Life and Death” dealt more with characters who were mere tropes, such as the trigger-happy soldier. I understood that the basis of this plot relies on a great deal of characters, so the need to include somewhat archetypal characters came out of necessity more than scripting laziness.
Genshi is a troubled but talented ninja, training in a mountain dojo, favored by his masters but haunted by disturbing visions and forbidden desires. As 80% of the book is a flashback, we know tragedy is coming, but the mystery behind the malevolent power-granting darkness lurking in Genshi's soul is only teased here. Mark London's script hits every cliché on the way down, but his pacing is solid and unchanging, keeping exposition succinct and the story chugging along. It's like a soap opera where everyone has been doing it long enough that everything falls into place naturally; there's no surprises but you can find yourself kind of entertained despite it. It feels so hypocritical when I rip into so many books for stories that don't really justify being retold due to redundancy, but the less 'G' tries to reinvent the wheel the more it works. Take that for what you will.
I’m not really going to tell you anything about the story because it’s the conclusion of the arc and anything said would either be vague or spoilery so let’s just move on.
The issue continues this and it’s pretty damn good. What’s really smart is the lettering in the background. There’s been phrases running throughout the entire Double Take Universe, but suddenly Ben is getting his own. It’s just not clear if he can see them or if anyone can. Pay attention to them because they hint at the path he’s going to take. There’s a killer cliffhanger at the end. It’s very abrupt, but it works for this story. There’s a few other books that do the same thing this time around and it’s not as successful as it is here. Probably the most successful to do it is Remote, with Soul being a close second (Rise is third).
After Steve Rogers had the Super Soldier serum extracted from his body and instantly became an old man, Captain America comics hasn’t gone on Captainless. Sam Wilson, the Falcon took up the shield and the mantle of Captain America. Another topic which caused a lot of controversy and a similar polarizing reaction among the community. Sam Wilson: Captain America comics and its current run is also written by Nick Spencer has been championing the progressive thoughts that this bold direction carried with, much of the first arc reflecting the current political landscape in the country and staying strong to the core of the decision and facing the opposition head-on. If you don’t believe me, please pick up the first volume of this fantastic run, aptly named Not My Captain America.