What seems like random medical events converge as a screaming plague hits Kirton. Can St. Lilith’s manage the emergency and stay out of the spotlight? Find out in The Ward #4 from Dark Horse!
THE WARD #4
Writer: Cavan Scott
Artist: Andres Ponce
Letterer: Mauro Mantella
Editor: Dave Marshall
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 7, 2022
Previously in The Ward: Nat, Ceri, and Luis go on a call to a boarded-up building. They discover it is a magical sweatshop on the verge of collapse. St. Lilith’s has no one to spare to help, and Dr. Kumasaka tells him the hospital could lose its funding if there is a security breach. Nat tries to save as many of the Hob workers as she can, but the hex fails, the building collapses, and she and Luis are trapped. Nat talks about her father, who was a doctor and expert in preternatural medicine. Luis becomes frustrated and takes some of his troll supplements. This time, he turns into a troll! He saves Nat but faces consequences.
AND NOW A PLAGUE
The Ward #4 opens with Nat’s daughter, Tammy, watching the news. The top story is the “Munch Epidemic,” an illness where people scream uncontrollably. The theory is that this is a form of mass hysteria. Screaming starts in the background as the producer is afflicted. Nat’s mother comes in and turns off the television.
To say things are in chaos at St. Lilith’s would be an understatement. They are the facility receiving cases of this new illness, and they are rapidly reaching capacity. Dr. Kumasaka is on the phone with the mayor, who threatens to cut their funding unless they find a cure. Not only is that inherently unreasonable, but it becomes clear that he resents having to support a secret facility for supernatural people.
Nat wants to call Luis in, but Dr. Cervantes was sent home, and there he is, watching television. One of his neighbors interrupts. She is supernatural, and her family was just attacked. Her husband is dead, and her daughter is badly hurt. Luis advises her to go to St. Lilith’s, but she knows they are turning patients away. As Luis bandages the little girl, her mother tells him about the attackers, men who took photos because they wanted proof that supernaturals existed. She also mentions a rally.
Luis finds the rally in question where a man shows the photographs and mentions a rite that their grandmaster performed. He starts to incite the crowd against supernaturals, blaming the plague on them. Luis storms the stage, throws the man around a little, and demands that he tell him more about the rite.
At the hospital, Nat’s mom has brought Tammy in to say goodbye to her mother. She is worried about the little girl and is worried about Nat. It comes out that she blames St. Lilith’s for her husband’s death. Nat reminds her that he died of cancer. St. Lilith’s treats magical beings, but the treatment is still medicine. There is no magical cure. The argument continues a little longer, but then Nat’s mom is struck with the screaming disease.
The scene shifts to the morgue at St. Lilith’s. Dr. Inpu, who looks like a representation of Anubis, works there. He is surprised when Luis shows up and is even more surprised when he demands to know who has been selling organs. The grandmaster of the League of Adam performed a ritual to disrupt magical glamours, and this ritual requires a banshee liver. He was also patient zero of the disease. Dr. Inpu claims that all their unclaimed organs are cremated, but the custodial worker at the morgue takes off at a run. Luis catches him. Interestingly, he has not come down with the plague.
This gives Nat an idea for a possible cure, and Dr. Kumasaka creates an elixir. They test it on Nat’s mom, and it works. Then Nat has another idea. She heads out into the city in a St. Lilith’s ambulance and finds a news team nearby. She tells them the truth about St. Lilith’s. Luis hears her and knows how he can help. He runs down to the glamour controls and turns them off. As Nat tells the city that St. Lilith’s can cure the disease, but they need help and blood donors, the magical façade fades revealing a hospital instead of an abandoned factory. Dr. Kumasaka is furious and worried.
But Nat’s honesty brings in people who want to help. It is another hectic day at St. Lilith’s, but perhaps they have a new future ahead of them.
MULTIPLE HIGHS AND LOWS
The art of The Ward #4 is solid. There is a lot of drama in this issue. It is the end of the story, so we have both the climaxes and resolutions to various arcs. At times it feels melodramatic. Luis was fired last issue. Here we see him go from sulking at home, to trying to help out as best he can, to going into a Hulk-like rage against the people who are vaguely opposed to the supernatural folk. Similarly, Nat’s entire family conflict is explained and resolved. It feels like a lot is crammed in, but the art does a masterful job of trying to keep the storyline clear.
I like Nat’s bold broadcast about the truth of St. Lilith’s. She looks like she is being honest and open about her work. The background panels showing moments of brightness and darkness – familiar hospital scenes – show us what she is doing. I like the unmasking of the hospital, but what really sells the ending are the normal humans who come there just wanting to help out.
BOTTOM LINE: A BIT RUSHED, BUT A FEEL-GOOD ENDING
The Ward #4 is a solid ending to the story. I like how it ended up with a pandemic parallel because I think that gives it more impact. My main criticism is that while the main plot is straightforward, the side plots have a lot of detail that the series does not have time to explore. Much like the chaos of the ER, we are plunged into accepting whatever is thrown at us. In this case, it works, but I cannot help but wonder if one or two more issues might have let the creators flesh some points out more cleanly and less abruptly.
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The Ward #4
The plague hits St. Lilith’s, and this time it is personal!
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Writing7
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Art8
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Coloring8
By day, she’s a mild-mannered bureaucrat and Ms. Know-It-All. By night, she’s a dance teacher and RPG player (although admittedly not on the same nights). On the weekends, she may be found judging Magic, playing Guild Wars 2 (badly), or following other creative pursuits. Holy Lack of Copious Free Time, Batman! While she’s always wished she had teleportation as her superpower, she suspects that super-speed would be much more practical because then she’d have time to finish up those steampunk costumes she’s also working on.