It's no surprise that almost anything writer Jonathan Hickman touches, comic book lovers will gravitate to. While fans adored his work on various Avengers books, events such as Infinity and Secret War, and other stories from Secret Warriors to Fantastic Four, he made his name on the indie comics like The Nightly News.
After more recent Image Comics like The Manhattan Projects and East of West, hi smost recent new Image series is The Black Monday Murders. It started February 2016 and focused on the financial industry being run by supernatural forces, however, Issues #9 and #10 have recently been delayed. With that in mind, CBR is taking a closer look at the dark adventure he and artist Tom Coker have created so far.
WHAT IS THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS ABOUT?
The premise behind Black Monday Murders is innovative and quite thought-provoking, especially for anyone who believe in conspiracies about the Illuminati running the world. This story focuses on the Caina-Kankrin Investment Bank, its 1980s merger and how the board has turned into the powers-that-be who literally dictate the financial operations of the world.
For centuries, the ancient pagan god Mammon has run schools--six under his purvey, one destroyed and another shockingly hidden--on the principle that wealth isn't accumulated without a price. This goes back to the 1500s, where temples in Bolivia were mined for silver, and, as Detective Theo Dumas finds out, these riches were extracted but the price paid was the blood of thousands of slaves who did the work.
Dumas discovers this even runs back to biblical times where Judas died over Peter because the former accepted money for his betrayal, whereas Peter was merely a verbal traitor. With that in mind, Mammon's disciples have been manipulating banks, the Stock Exchange and claiming the lives of the plebs involved, all so he can be fed and enrich the lives of his servants in return. As for the prime group capitalizing on this, Caina-Kankrin then became embroiled in a civil war in 2016 after the murder of a board member, Daniel Rothschild.
WHAT HAPPENED SO FAR?
Daniel and his sister, Ria, lost their parents when their grandfather William murdered the them for diluting the bloodline. He wanted pure-bloods to take his place on the Caina board, but eventually, the keys to the kingdom fell to the siblings. However, in the Kankrin merger, Daniel betrayed his sister and she was kicked out, which allowed his partners and Russian interests to occupy four power seats each.
With Daniel's killing, however, Ria has returned to the Ascendant Seat, directly opposing Viktor in his Stone Seat. As their feud rolls on, Dumas investigates, using a professor's help to understand the power of mathematics as a language in the dark arts that's harnessed by eldritch gods. He realizes this merger turned Caina-Krankin into the most dominant force in the banking industry, although the only other members present were the Russian Alexi and Marco and Beatrix, who both still hold some loyalty to Ria.
Ria merely returned to restore her family's name and avenge her brother, culminating in her lover and familiar -- a pale vampire-like woman named Abby -- killing Viktor once it was revealed that he murdered Daniel. Apparently, Daniel was feeling guilty over how they took advantage of the poor and was trying to spend more money on helping a broken world, which Viktor saw as weakness and a threat to their blood pact. With Viktor's death, Ria's made her statement and with more power in her hands, it remains to be see how the Russians will strike back and who'll stand with her after she ate Viktor's heart in front the cabal to prove a point.
THE FUTURE OF BLACK MONDAY MURDERS
In April, The Black Monday Murders went on hiatus due to Coker's health.
In April, he confirmed the hiatus on Facebook, stating, "Due to ongoing health concerns, Jonathan and I will have to postpone the 3rd arc of The Black Monday Murders. This is only temporary and not a cancellation." Image Comics canceled orders for both #9 and #10, with a note to retailers they intend to resolicit the issues at an unspecified, later date.
Where the series left off, Dumas lost his professor to Mammon in exchange for information, and the last issue saw Ria recruiting him into her inner-circle. We also saw Thomas Dane, Daniel's head of security, working for Ria and telling her how her brother was trying to do good, hinting they'll be making a shift in the cabal to become a force possibly for the light. He found another board member, Wynn, who was on a reclusive trip in South America, so it remains to be seen how Wynn factors into Ria's new vision.
As for Dumas, he found out every single Wall Street crash was due to Mammon's circle, except the '87 one which is when the merger occurred, so clearly the detective has his own motives for infiltrating this seedy group.