Red Rider #3 Het Huis Merlijn – Comic Book Review
In the second issue of Red Rider we saw it end with two of B’hal’s goons surprising Red, beating him up and taking him with him, while Merle was also in the trunk of their car. Unknowingly they put savior and victim together for the third and last issue of this small spin-off series. This time all bets are off and Red will have to put all the cards on the table to stop B’hal from summoning the ancient trapped demon, but he won’t be able to do it alone given his current situation. We were wondering how this trilogy would end, and here’s our opinion, without spoiling the experience for you.
Red finds himself in quite the pickle now that he’s being beaten to a pulp by one of B’hal’s goons. Merle isn’t in a much better spot, as he will be served to B’hal directly, to serve as a key ingredient in the summoning ritual of the destructive demon. Celeste has a bad feeling about Red’s disappearance and decides to act upon her intuition and sets out to find him, and ultimately to save him when she discovers in what situation he finds himself in. We can’t really tell that much more without spoiling the conclusion of this series.
The flow of this issue is completely different than in the other issues as it all revolves around the summoning ritual of the demon, thus things move in rapid succession of one another. It’s all about a battle against time, with the odds stacked against the good side, with the possibility of throwing the entire world into chaos. Lectrr uses less storytelling in this issue, and lets things wrap themselves up, as the graphical part of this novel is more profound.
This issue has a lot of images that are there to paint the setting, especially when it comes to the summoning ritual. Stedho lets the drawings speak for themselves, with very detailed backgrounds, painting the direness of the situation. When looking at all the three issues, this one has the best illustrations, and the most interesting backdrops. We hope to see these rugged animations again during one of SU’s future series.
Conclusion
Red Rider #3 Het Huis Merlijn is a proper ending to a somewhat ‘filthy looking’ series that was a direct spin-off of De Rode Ridder, which revolves around a valiant knight in a medieval time. The concept of taking that character, breaking it down to a modern day drifter with an army background, while keeping the mystic intact with the addition of a torn down Merlin, worked extremely well, better than initially expected. We’re sad to see this series go, but the short and powerful burst it brought was surely entertaining.
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