Wolfsmund vol. 4
There’s a lot of suffering to endure in this series. On one hand, there’s the suffering endured by the inhabitants of the Swiss cantons who are hemmed in by the Wolfsmund gate at Sankt-Gotthardt Pass as they struggle against Bailiff Wolfram’s apparent omniscience in regards to their plans. On the other, there’s the suffering the reader has had to endure as they watch Wolfram succeed through the dictates of the plot rather than any particular skill of his own in a series that appeared to be structured around the premise of “Who will make it past Wolfsmund in this episode?” Well, the good news is that the last volume put paid to that premise and saw the revolt against Wolfram and his men begin in earnest. Things went well for a while, but this latest volume sees the rebellion’s momentum begin to stall.
It turns out that Wolfram and the people who built Wolfsmund were prepared for just about every eventuality, and we see these ticked off throughout the first part of the volume. Regrettably, it’s hard to feel any tension from seeing a supply caravan from the south side of the gate try to deliver supplies by inching across the far side of the lake because you know they’re doomed to failure. We do get some impressively gory scenes as the inhabitants of the fortress fight back. I don’t think I’ve seen molten lead used as a weapon before and its results are something that definitely betray mangaka Mitsuhisa Kuji’s status as a former assistant to “Berserk’s” Kentaro Miura. This is all in a good way, I might add.
Yet we do get to see some genuine creativity on the side of the resistance as they manage to get a man inside the fortress through some decidedly unconventional means. It’s also quite entertaining to watch the efforts of master spear-wielder Kurt Goatherd as he proves himself to be a stone-cold badass who shows you that he is not a man to be laughed at or trifled with in spite of his silly name. His one-on-one with Wolfsmund’s head knight is a beautifully choreographed fight scene and one that’s hard not to appreciate even if the outcome is something of a foregone conclusion.
After all that, I was ready to see more screws put to the resistance by Wolfram… until something happened nine pages from the end. I won’t say what it is, but it leads to what is the most satisfying moment I’ve witnessed in this series so far: Wolfram being surprised. It’s quickly followed by the bailiff acting panicked and then displaying something that looks like it might almost be fear. Though I imagine that he still has a few surprises left in store for the resistance, I honestly hope we get to see him die in a way that’s even worse than the punishments he has dished out already. Yes, that may sound like a predictably straightforward end, but I can’t imagine anything else providing a satisfying finish for this title.
That is, unless Wolfram does turn out to have supernatural powers as hinted at in the opening story to this volume. We learn the origins of Sankt-Gotthardt Pass here and the deal with the Devil one girl made in order for it to happen. Taken as serious drama, it’s pretty overwrought but it works if you think of it as a nasty little European fairy tale in the vein of the Brothers Grimm. I’d like to think that it’s meant to serve as a local legend, unless these four volumes so far are meant to be setup for what is going to be an epic series about the struggle against the Satan-Powered Bailiff Wolfram!
Based on what I’ve read so far, I don’t think Kuji has the chops to pull it off yet. “Wolfsmund” has worked as well as it has so far by embracing its grounded tone and (mostly) avoiding superhuman feats of strength and endurance. If the forthcoming fifth volume is the final one, and it feels like it might be based on how the narrative ramps up here, then that would feel appropriate as this is not a title that would benefit from being stretched out. No matter how good the payoff, one can only take so much suffering.