A long-buried curse escapes and wreaks havoc not just among the Orcs. Can Pez, Granny, Utzu, and their kin and friends figure out how to counteract it? Find out in Orcs! The Curse #4 from BOOM! Studios.
ORCS! THE CURSE #4
Writer: Christine Larsen
Artist: Christine Larsen
Editor: Sophie Philips-Roberts
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $5.99
Release Date: November 30, 2022
Previously in Orcs! The Curse: Bog’s farts are cured, but an evil spirit is on the loose! Pez, feeling left out, wanders away on her own and meets Daniel, an Elf. Misery turns into excitement as she decides they must be on a quest together. Utzu and Bog cannot find Pez, and Bog continues the story about Drod, Zamma’s tribe, and a mysterious necromancer. Pez and Daniel search for the evil spirit, and Danield tells her the story of how his grandmother perished in a pestilence and how his mother became the Elves’ Mother Tree. Pez asks if her name was Wendy – she recognizes her from the Orc stories about Drod. Granny travels to the Astral Plane to speak with her old friend Wendy, and it turns out the Granny is Zamma from the stories. Pez and Daniel find a creepy tower which turns out to be a trap which injures Pez, and the only one who can heal her is the Mother Tree!
THE ADVENTURE PATHS CONVERGE
Orcs! The Curse #4 is the final issue in this arc. It is 48 pages long, so there is plenty of room for the story, which opens with the curse breaking one of the wards on the Orcs’ cave. The Chief awakens and goes looking for the others, but most of them are gone! Only Granny and several of the kids remain. Granny finds that the seal on the South Gate has become a curse. It cast a mind control spell and the other Orcs simply walked out under its control. The kids were not affected because they have a protection spell on them from their adventures. The Chief is safe because he got a protection spell long ago, and it is still intact. But to undo the curse, Granny needs a root from the Tree of Memory in the Hold of Beasts. But the Wolves and the Orcs have a treaty, and the Chief does not wish to break it.
Enter the Crows, Jax and Huginn. They fly a couple of the kids to the Tree and agree to stand guard for them. Zep and Sprog must crawl through the network of roots to the heart of the Tree, and they know the Tree will test them to see if they are worthy. The two of them split up, and the Tree works on their memories, giving them little mental challenges to overcome on their own. They succeed and find the magical root at the heart of the Tree. As they work their way back out, they have no idea that the Wolves scared off Jax and Huginn. Zep and Sprog run for their lives and climb another tree, and fortunately, the two Crows return for them.
Granny puts everyone else to work helping her make stink bombs. The Crows find the Orcs marching toward the Human village. A band of Humans on patrol spot them as well. They race home and the villagers have time to prepare for the Orcs’ attack. They do think it is strange that there are some very small Orc children present, but they ready their bows. And then the stink bombs fall on both the Humans and the Orcs. The Orcs retreat.
Pez has a conversation with the Mother Tree and confesses that she tampered with Granny’s spell. The Mother Tree reminds her that just because she made a mistake does not mean that she cannot mend it. Pez awakens to find herself in a cave full of cuddly, sleeping spiders. Daniel tells her that Mother Tree has found the malevolent spirit, which has cursed her tribe. The Elves plan to help try to defeat it.
Utzu quizzes Granny about Drod and Zamma. She also makes the connection between the evil spirit and the necromancer from the stories. Granny does not want to be known as Zamma again. She also tells Utzu that the evil spirit takes over convenient bodies to work its mischief. The wizard from the first issue appears, taken over by the spirit which recognizes Granny. They run and he sends their cursed tribe members after them.
Pez arrives just in time with the Elves. The Chief and the Orc kids show up as well to help knock out the tribe members. Even the Crows fly in. Zep and Sprog arrive with the last ingredient that Granny needs, which sets up the final fight against the possessed wizard. He is immensely powerful, but Wendy senses his presence and sends her roots underground to envelop him!
TYING UP ALL THE LOOSE ENDS
The art of Orcs! The Curse #4 is colorful and fun. The curse may be nebulous magic, but it is essentially a character. Instead of a specific form, it is represented by a chartreuse glow. Anything touched by this curse turns the same color. Not only does this help us keep track of the entity and its curse, but the color contrast livens up the pages. In another interesting touch, Granny’s stink bombs have their own bilious yellow color which makes for some bright panels where they use the stink bombs to drive the Orcs away.
I like the imagination and scale of the world. Last issue we saw the Mother Tree. In this issue, the Tree of Memory is an important place, and it is also enormous. Its massive form towers over the rest of the forest and it is so large that a clearing spreads around it. Its roots are a tangled mass, but there is space enough between them for a couple of kids to squirm through. As a setting for adventure, the mysterious cave beneath the roots is a cool place and the perfect setting for the Tree to play its psychological tricks.
BOTTOM LINE: THOROUGHLY ENTERTAINING
Orcs! The Curse #4 is a delightful ending to a tale that has wandered around quite a bit. I don’t think any loose ends were left hanging. I enjoy it when a story takes enough care to make several connections and has room for several characters to grow. The balance between humor and drama keeps the story from getting too heavy.
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ORCS!: The Curse #4
One tiny, little mistake lets loose a curse that threatens to take over the Orcs!
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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.