Although this second issue of Midnight Massacre naturally follows on from the first, the two issues are standalone stories without the presence of their infernal protagonist. This one sees the Devil take the form of a young woman in a horns-and-tail onesie infiltrating a student party in search of more quarry bound for hellfire.

Calling herself Lucy – because of course she does – while no less malevolent than her incarnation in the first issue, here she is far more playful, treating her hunt as a game rather than a task and content to watch people damn themselves by their own actions rather than condemn them through omniscient insight into their natures. Even though the forms taken in each issue are wildly different, it’s no accident that the eyes are exactly the same; bright, piercing and utterly unforgiving of the lowly humans targeted for damnation.

Like the first issue, a tale-within-a-tale relates a story of human rather than supernatural evil, although this one is even more grounded in the real world, and as well as discussing one of the most heinous acts a person can perpetrate, it also explores the consequences of people’s actions when reacting to tragedy and looking for someone to blame. The deeds of these perfectly ordinary individuals are not directly criticised or condemned, but the story instead tacitly makes the observation that people rarely consider the suffering that they might be causing, regardless of how unintentionally or small a contribution to its intensity they might make.

Lucy listens to the tale of fear and depravity as though only mildly interested, the events doubtless paling into insignificance when compared against the eternity of impiety to which she has borne witness. How it ties into her current assignment is a crafty revelation, and once again underscores the point that even in a world such as this, with supernatural entities prowling the shadows causing havoc, sometimes the evil of humanity is just as depraved as anything that these powers of darkness can conjure up.

A simple end to a duo of tales, Midnight Massacre #2 is just as nasty and brutal as its predecessor, and certainly leaves room for further stories of human misery and the infernal entities that observe them.

MIDNIGHT MASSACRE #2 / AUTHOR: JOHN FARMAN / ARTIST: MIKE DABRO / PUBLISHER: VITAL PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: 6TH APRIL