Review by Ian Keogh

Rich Tommaso seemed to be having a hell of a lot of fun with She-Wolf’s first volume, joyously shredding a century’s worth of clichés about werewolves, vampires and demons. Just before her eighteenth birthday Gabby was slashed across the face by her werewolf boyfriend, which may or may not be responsible for her own transformations. That could also be family business. She befriended a vampire, learned about a satanic pact and consorted with demons, all in the best possible way. It’s some while before Gabby returns here, though.

Before then Tommaso continues his tour of horror standbys by looking at Gabby’s younger sister Lizzie, rebellious on her sixteenth birthday, aware there’s a strangeness about her world and revelling in a transformation enabling her to defy any limitations on her behaviour. An introduction to a dungeons and dragons form of fantasy world follows, the most ordinary chapter here, despite a visual homage to Tintin album The Black Island. That precedes a really cool reintroduction for Gabby.

The fantasy world does have a purpose, connecting to the frankly hilarious reappearance of a demon from the first volume, with transformations the order of the day all the way through Black Baptism. However, although the artwork is again joyous simple excess, there’s not much that removes this from the previous volume. It’s just more of the same, and while it provides all necessary explanations and brings matters to a logical conclusion, it’s a case of diminishing returns and Tommaso was better off moving onto other projects.