Fall of Cthulhu



""The silent hordes of sleeping Cthulhu are stirring, their arms raised in war against great Nodens and his heathen ilk. Their war will wake the Old One and usher in an age of darkness.""

If the bigger they are, the harder they fall, then what happens when the gods themselves fall?

Fall Of Cthulhu is a comic book series published by Boom! and based on (and inspired by) the works of HP Lovecraft. The series follows a few unfortunate mortals as they're entangled in the conspiracies and manipulations of the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods, who prepare for war against Nodens and the Elder Gods, and the apocalypse that will inevitably ensue. Said characters include academic turned mental patient Cy Morgan (whose uncle's research introduces the plot), Portuguese street rat Luci Jenifer Inacio das Neves (a.k.a. Lucifer), local sheriff in over his head Raymond Dirk, and lastly, the enigmatic hostel owner Mr. Arkham.

In its own way, the comic acts as a Crisis Crossover for the Cthulhu Mythos, gathering the classic elements from Lovecraft's fiction to mingle with whole new creations. Furthermore, each artist on the title brings his or her own brand of slightly off-kilter illustration, including subtle, yet effective Art Shifts whenever the bewildered human characters are dropped into the Dreamlands.

In addition to the first volume, Fall Of Cthulhu continues in two miniseries (Godwars and Apocalypse) and has spawned three spin-offs: Cthulhu Tales, a Lovecraft-grounded anthology title, Hexed, continuing Lucifer's misadventures in eldritch thieving, and a proper sequel, The Calling: The Cthulhu Chronicles.

This series provides examples of:

 * The Adjectival Man: The Gray Man
 * Art Shift: A secondary artist was on-board during the comic's first volume specifically to illustrate the Dreamland sequences.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Luci Jenifer Inacio das Neves. Or Lucifer, for short.
 * Batman Gambit: This is the Harlot's preferred method of conspiracy. It helps that by being a keeper of secrets, she can sit back, relax, and wait for some desperate human to stumble into the Dreamlands looking for her help.
 * Body Horror: Hope you don't have any paranoia about Morgellons disease.
 * Canon Foreigner: The Harlot, the Grey Man, Gith, the Masked Mute, Sysyphyx (and her son) are all new creations by the comic's writer, although they fit well enough aside Lovecraft's designs that no one notices.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The knife's only the most obvious one.
 * Corruption of a Minor: One issue featured a young boy going to a comic book shop for his birthday, and getting a "special present" from a very sexy woman: an empty box.
 * Cosmic Horror Story:
 * Covers Always Lie:
 * Creepy Child: Jason used to be a normal kid who wanted to read a cool comic book. Then Sysyphyx gave him a box with nothing in it. Now Jason is going to learn how to fly...
 * The Masked Mute, Sister of the Lost Abyss, looks like a regular female adolescent wearing a spooky mask,
 * Deal With the Devil: The Harlot is the keeper of secrets, and she'll give you the answers you seek... but always for a :
 * Cy initially gives her his wisdom teeth in exchange for an answer, and then willingly
 * Dirk gets one of the more heartbreaking ones, when in exchange for the location of the Gray Man's ceremonial blade,
 * Dream Land: The titular Dreamlands, imported Lovecraft's other mythos. It's the primary stomping ground of the Outer Gods, the Harlot, and Nodens, and is accompanied by a trippy Art Shift in-comic.
 * Driven to Suicide: Happens no less than three times in the first volume alone!
 * Egomaniac Hunter: Nodens, arguably. He gets the wiggle room by account of him being an Elder God and thus, celestially opposed to the Old Ones and Outer Gods like Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep.
 * Eldritch Abomination: It has Cthulhu's name in the title, folks. Do the math.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: The Harlot, a green-skinned mutant of a woman in a doll's outfit, is probably the closest we'll ever get to Fan Disservice in a Lovecraft story.
 * Flat What:
 * Gambit Pileup: All the gods think they're playing each other like a fiddle, but in the end, it's  who plays the best instrument of all. Fortunately,.
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: The entire series starts after Cy's Uncle Walt has already done so, and by the end of the first storyarc
 * Grand Theft Me: Sysyphyx can possess people by replacing their skull and spine, and the Gith
 * Grandpa God: Nodens, per Lovecraft's original description in the short story The Strange High House In The Mist.
 * High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The ultimate price for some of the Harlot's knowledge? You crawl into a box that, willpower utterly destoryed, and stay there, for all eternity, unless the Harlot wants you out. In other words, it's a sensory deprivation tank owned and controlled by an Eldritch Abomination.
 * Connor's gift to the Old Ones?  Connor's punishment for trying to escape from this fate?
 * Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: The true impetus of the story is due to the Elder God Nodens wanting to hunt the biggest game of 'em all — Cthulhu!
 * Nodens' followers are also prone to doing this, as seen in the first volume, when they release a man into the woods so that they can hunt him down.
 * I Have Many Names: Stated almost verbatim by Mr. Arkham in the first chapter.
 * Implacable Man: The Gray Man, the "patron saint" of human sacrifice. All he needs to do is breathe on you, and you won't be looking in the mirror anytime soon.
 * Laser Guided Amnesia:
 * Living Bodysuit: Mr. Arkham, the oddly benevolent man who aids Cy in the first chapters, is none other than
 * Lovecraft Country: Arkham, Massachusetts, of course.
 * Madness Mantra: In the second storyarc, a young boy named Jason keeps muttering the words "knees first, head second" after opening a box given to him by a very pretty lady.
 * Sarcastic Devotee: Connor, Mr. Arkham's right hand man.
 * Street Urchin: Lucifer could either live (and get killed) as a pick-pocket in Rio, or go to work assisting a professor gaining the attention of the Great Old Ones. Unfortunately, she chose the only path worse than being killed in a Brazilian gang war.
 * The Un Reveal: The identity of the girl in the crowd.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: You'd think a mother would frown on her seven year old receiving a gift from a woman whose breasts are barely contained in her corset. You'd be wrong, apparently.
 * Xanatos Roulette: What the Harlot's grand scheme looks like after the conclusion of Apocalypse. Justified, for she's an Eldritch Abomination that makes it her business to know everybody's secrets, including the gods'.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: You'd think a mother would frown on her seven year old receiving a gift from a woman whose breasts are barely contained in her corset. You'd be wrong, apparently.
 * Xanatos Roulette: What the Harlot's grand scheme looks like after the conclusion of Apocalypse. Justified, for she's an Eldritch Abomination that makes it her business to know everybody's secrets, including the gods'.