Review by Frank Plowright
Fiends of the Eastern Front was a feature that long lingered in 2000AD’s festering file of strips that never achieved their potential. See why in Volume 1. The exception there was a stunning 21st century re-imagining from Ian Edginton and Dave Taylor that single-handedly raised the volume from ordinary to something worth looking at.
It was set during World War II, and Edginton is back for this prequel, incorporating the legend of Black Max into the Fiends continuity. As serialised in the 1970s, Max was lurid comedy set during World War I, but as repurposed by Edginton and artist Tiernen Trevallian his giant bats are fearsome creatures, and Max a viable threat. His abilities and machinations were always backed up by scientific gobbledegook, and Edginton continues that tradition while neatly tying Max into the Fiends via ancestry.
The mood veers more toward that of earlier Fiends stories, and while not descending to Max’s solo outings, it’s clear Edginton and Trevallian don’t intend anything more than trivial melodramatic horror. However, that’s just a prequel to the meat of this volume, so to speak, which is infinitely better. A British soldier survived an encounter with the unknown during World War I and seeks answers about Constanta the vampire. That he meets someone who can tell him is fortunate, but Edginton weaves one hell of a Shakespearean story about the desire for power and the making of a monster. Trevallion’s art is infinitely more appealing here. It’s not just the addition of colour, although the colour is thoughtful, but the time taken to consider layouts and details. The whole is monstrously entertaining.
While the first story seems inconsequential, Edginton does in fact have a master plan, and with Constanta the constant, he introduces more horrors from myths and fairy tales to merge with Constanta’s doings, all the while expanding his world. It’s the introduction of beings more able to test Constanta than in the past, and Edginton merges that world with classic British spycraft. Edginton and Trevallion even end with a creepy perversion of Christmas. There’s a big story brewing here, and who would ever have thought Fiends of the Eastern Front could be rebooted so thrillingly?
