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Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: May 21, 2014
Part 5 of 5 in the story The Reign of the Black Flame, this story doesn't feel as much as a conclusion as a transition piece.
[SOME SPOILERS EXIST BELOW.]
The B.P.R.D. and Russian Special Sciences Service team's surviving members are trying to make their way out of Manhattan, away from all the foul creatures and devastation. They're joined by a small band of human survivors as well in this mission. They all rendezvous, the baddies they were fighting having mysteriously quit attacking right before the seriously-wounded Iosif made his way to them.
Fenix and a couple others head the opposite direction, into the heart of the city, to search for Liz. And she, for her part, continues to battle the Black Flame, the both of them seeming to grow more powerful with each passing moment. She keeps knocking back all the minions he keeps summoning, too. But she's stops short when the Black Flame explains to her that he is connected to every living thing on the New York island, good and bad, and so to destroy him she will have to destroy everything. As a final shot, he then makes an incantation that creates a massive explosion and huge crater - which, a short time later, is where Fenix and those with her discover Liz, a little worse for wear but alive.
The teams, those that survived now safely out of the city, part ways and, in closing, Liz thinks her actions may have been harmful. But others point out that because she'd been preoccupying the Black Flame that then others were able to escape. However, the closing images shown while these words are spoken, speaks to something far more menacing having survived instead...
This storyline has been an action-packed set against a pretty enormous background, with Mignola and Arcudi not only moving the characters forward a little but also making them come to terms with some of their own past actions. The future stories get set up a bit, too. James Harren's artwork gets to really stretch out in this finale, too, with big, huge battles against large backdrops (and with large implications to the story) taking place on nearly every panel.
