When the White Army comes for Yuli and Alex, Yuli manifests the golem! Can she control it, and can she return to herself? Find out in Edenfrost #4 from Mad Cave Studios!

EDENFROST #4

Writer: Amit Tishler
Artist: Bruno Frenda
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Editor: James B. Emmett
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 27, 2024

Previously in Edenfrost: Alex summons the golem, and Yuli is resentful that he has kept this a secret. They hear gunshots. Yuli wants him to summon the golem again and fight, but he knows this is dangerous. Instead, they return to the cabin. Olena has passed out again. The children gather supplies and there is a knock on the door. It is Boris, the soldier they frightened earlier. He warns them that the White Army ambushed his unit and is approaching. Alex sees he is wounded and offers to bandage him. Olena awakens and grabs her gun. The Whites arrive and claim they only want the children. Yuli stabs a soldier. Alex gets hit and the pendant flies off. Olena turns on Belov. Yuli remembers the attack on their parents and desperately wants to fight back. And she hears the voice of the golem in her head.

FEAR, ANGER, AND POWER

Edenfrost #4 opens with Alex’s memory of a time when his parents helped a friend who had been shot. This could get them all into trouble, and during this time, Yuli was playing outside. The golem orders him to wake up, and he does so, finding himself buried under the wreckage of the cabin. A giant wolf – the golem – attacks the soldiers, and Alex begs forgiveness from his mother for not protecting his sister.

Belov orders his men to shoot. Possessed by the golem, Yuli hardly feels them as they bounce off her stone hide. She tears Belov’s men apart. Alex runs after her. He talks to her and tries to calm her down, telling her to let the armor go and come back to him. Instead, she roars at him, blasting him away from her. He lands near Boris who asks him what is happening. Alex explains that the golem becomes part of a person to survive, and it feeds on their fear and anger, but this weakens the human. He does not know how Yuli is still functioning.

Belov decides to go after the entity himself. He finds a grenade and walks up closer to Yuli. He seems to know it is one of the children, yet he lobs the explosive anyway. Yuli catches it in her mouth, and it explodes. The wolf form crumbles away from her. Alex picks her up from the rubble. Belov approaches again, this time with his pistol in his hand. Boris warns Alex, who grabs the pendant from Yuli and uses the golem to crush Belov.

They need to leave. Boris finds a couple horses, one for the children and one for himself. They have their own places to go. Before he leaves, Boris gives them a map. He has been charting enemy movements. Not all of his information is current, but it should help the children avoid more soldiers.

Yuli and Alex talk as they ride away. Alex does not know how Yuli managed to control the golem for so long; he gets exhausted after only a couple of minutes. He reassures her that he knows it was not her, that she was not entirely in control. But Yuli confesses that it was all her, and she breaks down crying. Alex remembers that she is just a kid, they both are, and they are going through a lot.

They keep traveling and don’t talk further about the golem. Alex wonders about it. Their mother used to tell stories about the family’s protector and its enchanted necklace. Was this just folklore, or did show know what was behind it? And what do they do with the golem? He has a sense that it could be dangerous. Boris had the idea that they could fight for something greater than themselves with it. Who knows what Yuli thinks? They approach town and hear the sound of an approaching army convoy.

IN THE SHADOW OF WAR

I find it interesting how in Edenfrost #4, we see that Yuli’s version of the golem is so different from Alex’s. While his manifests as a humanoid form made if ice and rock, hers appears as a giant wolf with glowing red eyes. She is tucked in the middle of it, apparently unconscious. With Yuli powering it, the golem is not afraid to attack the White Army soldiers. Alex talks about it feeding on fear and anger, and this young girl must have a lot of them. When he approaches her, he tries to connect with her, to let her know that he knows what she must be feeling. The golem stares him down and we see Yuli for a moment, conscious, connected, and looking as though she is not ready to be talked down.

Belov is a formidable opponent. We can see that he knows there is a connection between the golem and the children. He wants them alive, and the obvious conclusion is that he somehow wants the golem. When his own men cannot subdue Yuli, he is not afraid to confront her himself. He has an almost manic confidence, an ironclad belief that he is in control. As she shows how tough the golem is, he is not afraid to escalate his own weapons. It feels fitting that Alex takes him out, but Belov had to be getting orders from someone. Someone else must know.

BOTTOM LINE: TENSE AND SPELLBINDING

As Edenfrost #4 closes, Alex and Yuli have made it through the immediate danger of the army, but they still have no family and nowhere safe to go. And the family protector they have is still an unknown quantity.

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Edenfrost #4

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Two children share a dangerous and powerful secret – the ability to manifest a golem!

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