SPOILERS!

I have to admit that I’m a little frightened by my attraction to the psychotic Charlotte Cutter. We’re given a glimpse inside her head in Volume 7 as she freaks out over her totem being taken. She’s very much a hot blonde Golem with a slicked back bob and a British accent. She needs a back story though. I need to know if it was the “no witnesses” part of the job that broke her or if she was already on the cusp of crazy when she was recruited. Or do all Masks lose it when their totems are taken away?

When Cutter finds Erica and her friends, she offers to free Octo from the confines of Erica’s favorite childhood toy, if keeps quiet about her hiding in the closet. Erica, Gabi, and Riqui do not know that Cutter has found them. Octo seems to comply, but I can’t help thinking that it tried to warn Erica when it tells her bluntly that they are all going to die. Though it doesn’t seem like she ignores her totem, she doesn’t do anything in response to it either. She just picks Octo up after a quizzical look. At the end of the volume, she is curled up on a Greyhound seat looking at her Octo as the bus drives away.

I can’t help wondering about the relationship between a hunter and their totem. Would Erica freak out as much as Charlotte did if someone stole Octo? What is the day-to-day relationship between a hunter and their totem like? In an episode of giddiness, I imagined a day spent with a forgettable Black Mask. The one that’s always drawn to fill in a crowd or the background of a scene. They’re not terrible at monster hunting, so that they’re always on someone’s shit list. But they don’t excel either. No one’s really paying attention to them. They’re there to fill a seat.

I created a whole story in my head of this Mask and their totem bickering like roommates, watching out for each other, and supporting each other with tough advice and a shoulder to cry on. They’d spend their day off from hunting on domestic tasks like doing the laundry, vacuuming, grocery shopping, and cooking. They’d have domestic conversations like “Should we order out tonight?” “No, let’s save a little money and see what’s in the fridge.”

Anyway, Volume 7 also provides a satisfying conversation between Cecilia and Erica. I forget how the tension between the two grew so problematic. Though I do know they both love and miss Jessica. However, the “Jessica” that has endeared herself to them are seemingly two quite different people. The young sister and best friend Jessica and the older PTSD Jessica. Cecilia still sees Erica as a “problem,” but maybe in honor of Jessica’s memory, provides her with a set of poison arrows to kill the monster and a scenario for her to escape pursuit of the House of Slaughter.

In the story’s climatic scene, I questioned Erica’s decision to shoot Charlotte Cutter with the poisoned arrow. Charlotte easily plucks the arrow out of the air and stabs Gabi with it. At first, the moment felt contrived. A lazy convention to get to the twist and dramatic end to Gabi’s heroic journey. But then I thought maybe it was just Erica panicking. Thinking she could hit Cutter or distract her enough so Gabi could get away. Or maybe it never occurred to her that Cutter would stab Gabi with it.

At the end, it feels as though Gabi got the short shrift. Little Jimmy was given five volumes (25 issues) and he was pretty benign. She only got 10. I got stuck on the idea that Gabi was going to be Erica to Erica’s Jessica. It would have been interesting to explore what Erica would have tried to copy and what she would have tried to do differently. I have similar questions about Cecilia and Charlotte. Both adhere to the “no witnesses” rule but Charlotte relishes the killing. I don’t think Ceclia took any pleasure in it.