The Witcher: The Bear and the Butterfly

Geralt of Rivia’s travels have taken him to the snow-covered land of Dol Gwyn where he hopes to use his talents to make himself less broke.  If not through claiming the standing bounty on wolf pelts, then through the other more substantial bounty being offered for a vampire.  Corpses that have been slashed and drained of blood have been turning up through the city, and the reward on the bloodsucker responsible has not only drawn all sorts of aspiring peasant monster hunters, but a fellow Witcher from the School of the Bear in as well.  Except all is not as it seems here and as Geralt learns from his encounters with an imprisoned housemaid, a crippled child, and mutated wolves, he’s going to have to use more than his monster slaying skills to get his reward.

Dark Horse has been publishing comics based on “The Witcher” – the games from CD Projekt Red as well as original writer Andrej Sapowski – for a good long while now (this is listed as vol. 10).  The reason I picked this one up is because it’s from a writer who I trust to provide a quality story whether he’s working on creator-owned or licensed properties:  Simon Spurrier.  Compared to some of his other projects, this is more direct and less weird than, say, “The Voice Said Kill” but that’s not as much of an issue here.  Rather than feeling like you’re being led by the nose in the satisfying payoff, the simplicity of the mystery here draws you in as the writer has Geralt puzzle it out.

The end result effectively reads like what would’ve made for a satisfying side quest in “The Witcher 3” in comic book form.  It doesn’t reach the upper echelons of the more memorable stories of that game, but Spurrier’s writing spins a good mystery while capturing Geralt’s character well.  The same goes for Stephen Green’s art who manages a credibly gritty feudal setting while delivering capable drama and action.  It all adds up to an easy recommendation for fans – of the game, or of the comic’s writer.