4 out of 5

While John Arcudi absolutely started making his mark as soon as he started working on B.P.R.D., Killing Ground feels like the first arc where he truly comes into his own, establishing lore that’s his and not directly connected to Lovecraftian space worms or frogmen.  The story itself is pretty simple – the wendigo is brought in to B.P.R.D. headquarters and seems to have gotten loose – but Arcudi ties it in to some of the mysteries he’s been churning through with Daimo, and also continues figuring out how to effectively use Liz via her dream interactions.  Meanwhile, Panya becomes an interesting matronly component, and Johann gets to play the jerk as he’s had the opportunity to take over a host body, and the first things he does, of course, are all indulgences.  Abe, his past thank gawd now in the past, formalizes as a team leader, although he’s mostly in the background for these issues.

While John commits a pretty epic story dump late in the arc, it’s a mostly satisfying one (‘mostly’ because story dumps are rarely ever going to be great, and this one suffers from the usual ‘okay, and then what…’ while you’re waiting for it to connect to the present), moreso exciting for how it leans us forward into truly new territory.

Guy Davis’ work is, at this point, the definitive template for how these characters act and move, and I can’t imagine Johann’s binge adventure being nearly as amusing from another artist.  The trade includes, once more, a generous amount of sketches from Guy and Mike.