Review by Ian Keogh

This is a second horror fantasy outing for Eddie, Iron Maiden’s long serving gruesome faced mascot. In the first Legacy of the Beast he was guided by the Clairvoyant to defeat the Beast. Ian Edginton’s script wrestled some coherence from Llexi Leon’s plot, and by the end all was well with the world. Except for the Clairvoyant, who died.

It turns out she has a brother, the Alchemist, who’s realised the threat wasn’t resolved last time after all, and there’s a power beyond the Beast. This time round Eddie’s got help from Lady Charlotte, dominatrix by trade, which gives Kevin West plenty of opportunity to check out leatherwear vids in costuming her.

It seems the skills of Charlotte’s trade can be transferred to fighting supernatural beasts, but otherwise Leon applies exactly the same template as he did to the first volume, with each chapter introducing a new horror as one clue leads to the next in unveiling the ultimate threat. It’s only at the final knockings with the method of defeating that ultimate threat that there’s any modicum of originality on Leon’s part, in what’s otherwise a depressingly mediocre experience.

The one bright spot elevating Night City slightly is West’s art. He’s far too good to have wasted his time here unless it was a massive payday for him. He brings character to Eddie’s grunting personality, designs the threats well, can tell a story and makes the ridiculous almost palatable.

Despite the lack of inspiration, there were enough Iron Maiden fans happy with the first Legacy of the Beast to spawn this sequel, but as there were no further outings the realisation must have dawned that there’s better band merchandise for their money.