Cry Havoc

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Now rise Karcharoth, rise and be the monster you were made to be, rise and CRY HAVOC."
Big Red Wolf thingy

Found here, Cry Havoc is a fantasy webcomic that follows the fortunes of four dogs of war who are bitten by a werewolf. Chased by the forces of the Vatican and AEsir churches, they try to survive in a world on the brink of collapse.

It features lots of good old fashioned violence, and plenty of supernatural creatures, often with a modernized twist. The main focus is on the actions, and interactions of its four Villain Protagonist s, but likes to delve into the morality and ethics of war and individual survival.

The comic ended halfway through its third chapter and can be found here.

Tropes used in Cry Havoc include:


  • Action Girl - Skoll(more probably a Dark Action Girl ), Hati, and Andrea Brynhildr.
  • Exclusively Evil -the werewolves are inaccurately portrayed by the church as Always Chaotic Evil
  • Aristocrats Are Evil - The only one they've met so far who doesn't appear to be is Freyja.
  • Art Evolution - changes noticeably in the first twenty strips, and continues improving throughout the first two chapters
  • Ax Crazy - Skoll often favors hand to hand combat over safety
  • Badass - Most of the cast at one point or another.
  • Badass Army - The dogs of war seem to be this, compared to the rebels they fight at least.
  • Berserk Button - Calling Skoll, or any dog of war, a 'mutt' seems to do the trick.
  • Big Badass Wolf - All the main characters
  • Blood Knight - Skoll
  • Child Soldier - Karcharoth is stated to have been one since he was six
  • Combat Pragmatist - Karcharoth, Fenrir, and Brynhildr.
  • Common Ranks - All the ranks bar the fictional Assault Sergeant Major
  • Dreaming of Things to Come - giant crimson wolves telling you that you're going to destroy the world and all your friends will leave you? Good times.
  • Dress-Coded for Your Convenience - The Dogs of War all wear green, the french all wear yellow, anyone else is a rebel (and not in a good way) Vatican preists and soldiers wear a redish burgandy, the A Esir dark greens and greys, and the coven troops wear predominantly grey.
  • Dysfunction Junction - the four main characters are:

a child soldier, with no real connections to anyone
an intelligent, if brutish, soldier who sees the error of his ways, but has given up trying to change things
an unrepentant sociopath who only fights because she enjoys it too much
a well educated and highly intelligent doctor, who after having the love of her life assassinated and executing said love's mother, is working as a mercenary medic.

  • Family-Unfriendly Death - various people get shot in the head with predictable results, more have limbs ripped off, but the cake goes to Faustus who is nearly bisected, dismembered, and then set on fire, although he didn't quite die.
  • Field Promotion - Karcharoth is promoted from Sergeant to Sergeant Major due to his Lieutenant dying.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars - all the main cast have battle scars, most notably Karcharoth who has a 'dueling scar' over his left eyebrow and cheek, he has numerous older scars on his chest, arms, and back. Skoll has burn marks on her back, scars on her neck abdomen,and legs, in addition to a long scar over her left eyebrow cutting across the bridge of her nose to her right cheek and jaw. Hati has slice marks on her arm, fenrir has a large shallow gash on his abdomen. Brynhildr has a small cross shaped scar on her jaw line and faustus has a demon arm, healed gash on his chest, and has severe scaring on his face, including his missing left eye. When seen under his hood it is obvious that Father Kaiser has several very large scars on his skull and face.
  • Gunship Rescue
  • Crapsack World - The world is enveloped in constant low intensity wars, he immortal races are on the rise, deamons are not uncommon, and an ancient race of monstrous werewolves has been reborn to a message calling for the death of the gods. Humanities population is falling, scientific progress has stagnated, and all anyone wants to do is fight.
  • He Who Fights Monsters - The Vatican and Æsir churches are implied to be this
  • Hollywood Tactics - averted, mainly. Nearly all the mortal on mortal combat is tactically sound, excluding some abilities that change the way the battles are fought (aka rushing while having someone psychically block the incoming fire)
  • Kill It with Fire - the vatican tries to do this to the protagonists via a fuel air bomb.
  • Leave No Survivors - Karcharoth orders a company of retreating enemies killed for refusing to surrender.
  • Limited Wardrobe - The werewolves wear different colored variants on the same style fatigues almost the entire second chapter until they change to more formal duds.
  • Infinite Canvas - The page for the 8th of december 2009 is actually three simultaneous scenes happening on the same page.
  • The Medic - Hati
  • Nigh Invulnerability - The werewolves are capable of surviving not only rifle fire, light machine gun fire, heavy machine gun fire, and automatic canon fire, but even anti-armor tank cannon rounds.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot - Werewolf mercenaries, vampire commandos, viking vampire hunters
  • Meaningful Name -

Fenrir is the name of the great wolf who would kill Odin during the norse Apocalypse, Ragnarok
Skoll is name of the wolf who will eat the sun
Hati is the name of the wolf who will eat the moon
Karcharoth is a play on Carcharoth, the greatest wolf who ever lived from Tolkiens The Silmarillion

  • Military Alphabet - Used by all the main characters to refer to targets.
  • Military Maverick - Skoll fits this one pretty nicely
  • Mismatched Eyes - Ashley Freyja has one blue eye and one green. and while never actually mismatched, the werewolves eyes fluctuate between their natural color and yellow when angry or excited. Psychers eyes glow blue when they are using their powers.
  • Modern Battlefield Weapons - is mixed with Dress-Coded for Your Convenience , the dogs of war tend to use swiss, german, or dutch guns, the rebels russian or eastern european guns, the french use french and italian weapons, and the vatican use the most powerful (if unweildy) guns available
  • Monochromatic Eyes
  • Custom Uniform - All the Dogs of War wear individual uniforms but they are very similar. passed off because they are mercenaries who choose their own gear.
  • Norse Mythology - the Æsir is a powerful church controlling northern Europe.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different - long thought extinct, all known werewolves died during the immortal wars. They transform during a full moon, and during their wolf phase are considerably larger than normal humans. They stand approximately six feet tall at the shoulder when on all fours, and nearly 12 feet tall when erect. They posses tough skin augmented by their resistance to non-silver weapons. They also have greatly improved senses. When transformed they may have difficulty controlling their actions due to bestial and pervasive 'wolf mind' that works subconsciously toward a fully animal state of mind. They can communicate with one another through a language that to observers sounds like growls and barks, but is understood only by other werewolves.

also, werebears

  • Psychic Powers - Karcharoth and Hati have this, its not very powerful, but apparently it doesn't need to be. Mainly used for lighting cigarettes, although it is used very effectively to knock down incoming bullets and to damage enemy equipment.
    • Hati, being a medic, also uses her powers to remove bullets from wounds and close up arteries.
  • Private Military Contractors - Dogs of War is just another name for this.
  • Sergeant Rock - Karcharoth
  • Slasher Smile - Skoll
  • Smoking Is Cool - Everyone smokes except Hati, but she is a doctor...
  • The Squad
  • Title Drop - "Now rise Karcharoth, rise and be the monster you were made to be, rise and CRY HAVOC!"
  • Token Good Teammate - Hati could be seen as this
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist - Faustus tries to stop the werewolves.... by assuming that all of the mercenaries they work for are also infected.
  • What Is Evil? - Karcharoth asks this of Hati, claiming that good and evil are just different view points of the same action.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human? - Comes up pretty frequently.
  • Villain Protagonist - everyone but Hati is basically out for themselves.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair - Karcharoth's hair is a very dark shade of purple. Its unknown if it is dyed, natural, or a side effect of something

A week after ending the author posted a synopsis of what would have been the last three chapters.