Kidnapping is one thing, but outright murder is more than Linnea bargained for. Is she still up to the challenge of taking on the cult? Find out in Pine & Merrimac #4 from BOOM! Studios.
PINE & MERRIMAC #4
Writer: Kyle Starks
Artist: Fran Galán
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Jon Moisan
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: April 24, 2024
Previously in Pine & Merrimac: Linnea and Parker stake out the hotel Linnea heard about on the island. After a while, Parker wonders why the police have not shown up even after they called in an anonymous tip about the sex-trafficking ring, although he admits it does sound far-fetched. It also reminds Linnea of another case she had in the area involving a group of furries and their sex parties. They decide to put on the robes and masks they found on the island and just sneak in. What they find is a full-blow cult get-together complete with sacrifice.
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN
Pine & Merrimac #4 opens at the cult ritual as the leader announces there is an interloper, and no one is to leave. His assistant, the Senator, suggests that they just ask everyone to take their masks off. The leader reminds him that this is a covert organization. He decides to take everyone aside privately and ask them a few questions. Meanwhile, Parker and Linnea shuffle their way out of the room and tell the guards that they were given permission to leave. No sooner are they out the door than the leader tells the guards to get them, preferably without shooting them in the parking lot.
Linnea, who cannot handle seeing and dealing with dead bodies, pinches herself repeatedly to keep from throwing up. Parker encourages her to keep running, but soon they read a dead end and a chain link fence. Parker helps boost her over. The men chasing them catch up to him, but they are not prepared for Parker and his fighting ability. Among their pursuers are the two men from the island who recognize him. Parker fights them all off and climbs over the fence.
The pursuing cultists are not so athletic, but there is a way around the end of the fence. Linnea and Parker duck into the nearest building – and suddenly find themselves in the middle of the furry orgy. What are the odds of multiple animal-themed, sex-related secret societies meeting on the same day? Alas, one of the attendees (Abigail’s ex) recognizes Parker, and one of the men following them overhears him and asks for more details.
Linnea and Parker shed their robes and try to make sense of the sacrifice and ritual. Jody gets their attention and warns them some people are staking out their place. Parker fills him in on what happened while Linnea can finally throw up. Jody comments on how this is all messed up, and how religious sacrifice cults will just sneak up on you. I enjoy the continued threads of humor although the book, overall, is quite dark.
Linnea is more determined than ever to stop the cult and save the next girls from being sacrificed. She does not have any good ideas on how to do this. Parker suggests a grenade launcher and is convinced that Jody must have one stashed away somewhere. Jody swears he is a pacifist and all he has are some fake grenades. He also tells them they cannot stay with him much longer. If they suspect he knows where they are, he will crack for sure.
The Kents decide to spend the night at a homeless shelter. Shortly after they arrive, there is a disturbance. Abigail is here and is complaining that someone has taken her cot. The worker reminds her that there are no assigned beds and points her to a vacant one. Abigail complains that it is in a bad spot.
Later, Linnea comes up with a plan. She wants to sneak back into the cult room, and they still have one set of robes. She will try to prevent or delay the sacrifice while Parker convinces the police. Linnea sneaks through the vents and gets into the cult’s area where she finds the wizened cultists who are in wheelchairs, who are fragile to the point of nearly falling apart but are also still alive. A cultist comes in and she claims to be the latest new assistant for handling them. And soon she finds herself in the midst of the ceremony.
BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
The art of Pine & Merrimac #4 also shifts effortlessly between the gritty and the amusing. There have been a couple of mentions of animal-themed cults, and now that we have a second to breathe, we can take in that the cultists’ masks are indeed representations of animals. Linnea’s mask is a cat while Parker’s is a dog, and the cult leader has one resembling a raptor. In contrast, when they stumble into the furries whose orgy is suggested and not graphically depicted, it is almost jarring to see their masks. These are all full, over-the-head, masks with the cheerful goofiness of large stuffed animals. Honestly, their somewhat cross-eyed smiles are delightfully incongruous with the Kents and the thugs wandering among them.
This issue spotlights Linnea’s vulnerability and her toughness. She cannot handle dead bodies, and at the start, we see her holding together as hard as she can. But it does not take long for her sense of justice to kick in, and she is willing to go back among the cultists. Her plan is to get in an improvisation at best, but she is convincing enough to get to where she wants to go. Finding the cultists who are barely more than corpses startles and then intrigues her. But she is where she wanted to be. She masks up, but we can see her misgivings as she keeps up her charade and hopes the rest of her plan will work out.
BOTTOM LINE: SO MANY SECRETS
Pine & Merrimac #4 digs into the dirt of a small town that everyone thought was idyllic. Behind that façade things range from unusual to sinister, and the Kents have committed to figuring things out.
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Pine and Merrimac #4
After finding themselves over their heads with the cultists, the Kents regroup and are ready to try again.
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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.