Night Force: Marv Wolfman, Tom Mandrake, Wes Hartman, Wes Abbott, Leonardo Manco

Okay, I finally get what I ask for, and I’m still confused. This issue not only reveals who Kassandra Fey (the old witch on the cover) really is, but it also explains exactly what these breeding people are up to…and kind of why. But it seriously didn’t help much. I do like how much it ties in with everything else that’s been going on in the series, but I honestly felt way overloaded with information.

We learn, first, how Kassandra got free…by taking the souls of the people in the 17th century jail around her, thereby growing her power. When the guards find all these dead people around her, they ship her off to Barbados, where she ends up convincing her new jailers to set her loose. Once free, she destroys Barbados and sucks up the souls of the dead there, becoming younger and more beautiful…BY GOD, it’s Senator Greene’s wife! The one running the show!

I like this nifty time-travel thing we see here, what with Baron Winters visiting her in the past so that she can get free and then influence the beginning of the dormant PSI line of people that eventually leads to the current Gen 11s. Wow, pretty complicated, if you ask me. But still somehow remaining elegant. We learn that Simon, her Gatherer person, was the one that sneaked into Wintersgate and released all the shadow things, which were actually pieces of his soul, so that they could then go through the doors to different times and affect the dormant people there to help grow their numbers.

That part’s pretty genius. But then she starts complaining about in-breeding and how the lines are getting weaker and the newborn Darklings are getting more…inbred, I guess…and they’re basically useless. So it seems like their plan didn’t work, but somehow the Gen 12s are coming and they’re supposed to be perfect…but we won’t get to see them, because it’ll still take 30 years to produce them. That’s way longer than the gestation period for Zoe’s Darkling baby to mature, and I just don’t see how it’s a threat anymore.

Kassandra goes on to talk about putting their Darkling PSI folk into seats of power only to manipulate them into fighting each other and causing a huge war that will kill untold numbers. Why? So Kassandra and her nurses and gatherers and all can feed on the soul energy of the dead. …Are you kidding me? This 200-year plan was all so you could suck up dead souls? Well, why can’t you just do that anyway? Walk around and just suck and suck? It seemed fine and easy when she was in prison, old and haggy. Why the ruse? Why all the dog-and-pony show? I just don’t understand.

After getting through all this, we get to see how Baron Winters escapes Kassandra’s cell and helps rescue Duffy and the woman who gave birth last ish. But I just found myself not caring anymore. This suddenly turned dumb and pointless. I can’t wrap my head around why someone would take all this time and precious care in raising these powerful people just to have them fight and kill each other. They even are able to drain souls from around the planet to keep Senator Greene alive in a previous issue. So…why do they need a war in order to gather soul energy when they seem to be able to do it when in need?

Or am I misunderstanding? Am I totally not understanding what Kassandra’s talking about, and what their true purpose is? Because, if so, I would LOVE some enlightenment. Otherwise, this all just seems like pointless drivel that I’m seriously not invested in (even though I’ve bought all the issues :\), and in which I’m even more disappointed. I had much different expectations going in.

Night Force #6 of 7, the verdict: Despite all my feelings about this book, I’m still going to see how it ends. I don’t have much of a choice, because I already bought the final issue. Let’s just hope it’s the final issue. I keep noticing how the title page says, “Book One, Chapter blah blah,” and I can’t help but fear that it’ll rise again like a bad sexually transmitted disease. I’m just really confused, and I don’t think I’m grasping exactly what’s going on…and it’s ruining my experience with this mini-series.

(Photo Source: DC Wikia)