“All the best stories are scary at the beginning. It’s how they end that matters.”

Currently in the midst of battling her toughest opponent yet, the fourth and final part of Hellbound Media’s Mandy the Monster Hunter: Legend of the Spindly Man is finally here. With Mandy having been tormented and broken down by the nefarious Spindly Man, now it’s down for the famed Monster Hunter to do what she does best: fight back!

Throughout the first two issues or more of this tale, poor Mandy was left desperate and powerless as the sinister Spindly Man snatched up innocent children left and right. Despite Mandy being at her wits’ end and with no solution in sight for this most eerie of threats, the closing moments of the third issue of Legend of the Spindly Man gave readers hope that maybe – just maybe – Mandy might have a plan up her sleeve…

In this concluding chapter, we find that Mandy does indeed have a plan to finally rid the world of the Spindly Man for good, although it’s not necessarily the Monster Hunter who is the sole hero of the story here. Of course, Mandy is indeed the one to go toe-to-toe with this menacing, monstrous figure, but she has a helping hand from elsewhere. We may already have veered into slight spoiler territory, so we’ll just put a cork in that thought for now.

When all is said and done, Legend of the Spindly Man is brought to a pitch-perfect conclusion that continues the strong storytelling and artwork seen in the previous three entries in this most recent Mandy the Monster Hunter adventure. Writers Matt Warner and Mark Adams again show how finely tuned they are at writing Mandy by this point; managing to bring a maturity to the message of Legend of the Spindly Man while not losing any of the child-like wonder that Mandy and her stories so often serve up. It’s okay to be scared, and that’s what we see loud and proudly displayed here – all, of course, given an extra surreal quality by the swirling, magical art of Lyndon White and the lettering of Nikki Foxrobot.

All in all, Legend of the Spindly Man is arguably Hellbound’s most ambitious piece of work to date, and you could likewise argue that this is the banner’s most impressive story yet. Either way, it’s an offering that will tick a whole host of boxes for a whole host of people as Spindly Man once again proves to be relatable to such a wide audience; old or young, horror hound or fantasy fan, cynical sceptic or wild-eyed believer.

By the time Legend of the Spindly Man comes to a close, we’re left with the promise that Mandy the Monster Hunter will return. With that, we can rest easy in the knowledge that for every evil that rears its head, for every monster that chances its hand, there’s Mandy. And Mandy hunts monsters.

MANDY THE MONSTER HUNTER: LEGEND OF THE SPINDLY MAN #4 / WRITER: MATT WARNER, MARK ADAMS / ARTIST: LYNDON WHITE / LETTERER: NIKKI FOXROBOT / PUBLISHER: HELLBOUND MEDIA / RELEASE DATE: MARCH 23RD