Feral #16 // Review
Things seemed a bit uneasy. In response to the uneasiness, Lord had explored. He ended-up somewhere he had not expected to be. He saw horrors that he had not expected to see. The pet food store seemed like such a nice place. Now he is being put on trial by the matriarch of the Pet City Superstore in Feral #16. Writer Tony Fleecs continues his anthropomorphized feline horror drama with the art team of Trish Forstner and Tone Rodriguez. Color comes to the page courtesy of Brad Simpson. The beginning of what appears to be a rather serious turning point for the cats hits the page with a heavy gravity.
Lord is truly apologetic for what he has done, but that might not be enough. The balance of power and the question of survival in the pet food superstore is very tenuous given the nature of the situation. Without people around, there’s uncertainty as to when, if ever, there might be further wet food. And so everyone has to mind the rules of the store...especially those who have been allowed-in from the outside. Lord and those of his community have to be espcially carefuly not to offend...
It’s a common trope in adventure fiction. The itinerant heroes make it to a place that seems like an oasis only to find that there are horrors lurking beneath a relatively stable surface. This has happened a couple of times now for the cats of Feral. Thankfully, Fleecs has managed to find novel horrors for the cats. There’s been a clever progression for the conflict from the sinister cat lady they found themselves in the company of to the horrifying operation in the back of the pet food warehouse...every time thins seem better, they turn out to be much worse. It’s sharp scripting from Fleecs.
There have been issues in the run of the series in which the horror has burst out in ugly moments of powerful aggression. Feral 16 is NOT one of those issues. Fleecs hands the art team 20+ pages of tension to render for the page as Lord’s fate is decided and everyone has to deal with it. Forstner and Rodriguez render an impressive array of different emotions and moods across the faces and postures of the cats as the saga begins to reach its next major turning point. Simpson’s colors cast the trial of Lord in the shadowy darkness of the cavernous big-box store at night. There’s an eerie stillness to it all until the mood shifts at issue’s end.
Thus begins “The Battle for Pet City.” This can safely be revealed in the final paragraph of the review as it is boldly plastered across the cover. It’s even above-the-title and everything. It’s a major moment for the series that...in a way...the series has sort of been leading-off in since the first issue. With things being as dark as they’ve been, it’’l be intersting to see where the darkness heads with this new plot development at the end of the 16th issue.
