Kate and Cate or on the trail of the First Shadow, which threatens to tear everything apart. It’s a powerful entity that has brought with it a great deal of chaos. If they’re going to defeat it, they will have to make some pretty significant sacrifices as Exorsisters wraps-up its tenth issue. Writer Ian Boothby and artist Gisèle Lagacé wrap-up the climactic conflict with a major source of evil in a witty, little bit of adventure. Though the art may be very appealing in places, the overall sense of immensity and impending doom seems missing in an otherwise enjoyable finale. 

The city is overrun by weird demons and purple tentacles and things. Everyone’s running around like it’s a horror movie. Kate and Cate are having a reasonably good time, though. Kate’s managed to borrow the flaming sword of an angel, but no amount of magic is going to keep things safe for her as a bit of The First Shadow has come to rest within her. It’s like existential indigestion or the worst cramps imaginable. Either way, Cate will need to help Kate with the darkness within if both of them are going to be able to defeat The First Shadow.

There’s a hell of a lot going on with all of the other characters in the ensemble (and it’s at a time like this when it becomes really, really apparent just how many characters Boothby has been juggling these past ten issues.) Cate and Kate really ARE the center of the series, though. It’s a really fun connection that the two of them have. Boothby allows Kate some of the wittiest dialogue in a climactic issue that sees major changes and perhaps something like a satisfying ending to a series that’s been way too much fun to end here. 

Lagacé’s Archie-like rendering of a world of darkness continues to have tremendous charm. Still, the framing of a massive world-shattering potential armageddon event falls kind of flat in a Dan DeCarlo-inspired art. An issue like this needs a bit more of a sense of the overpoweringly cosmic, and Lagacé doesn’t give the action the kind of intensity it needs. That being said, Cate and Kate remain very endearingly rendered by Lagacé. The central concerns of the two title characters are beautifully brought to the page by Lagacé. Cate and Kate achieve an almost iconic visual presence in the climactic moments leading to the end of the tenth issue. 

The events at issue’s end call into question exactly how the series might continue. Boothby and Lagacé have developed something really, really enjoyable with Cate and Kate. With any luck, there will be more issues on the horizon. The unique horror-comedy world they’re bringing to the page has a lot of potential. With just a bit more work, the series could turn into something big and expansive, with the two title characters at the center of something much more complicated than what Boothby and Lagacé have explored thus far. 

Grade: B+