In our review of Fall of the House of Slaughter #3, Cecilia’s being pushed to a breaking point, as Maxine does a bit of sneaking around.
Fall of the House of Slaughter #3
Writer: Tate Brombal
Artist: Adriano Turtulici
Main Cover: Sam Wolfe Connelly
Variant Covers: Werther Dell’Edera, Jacob Phillips, Sam Wolfe Connelly, John Amor, Jorge Fornés
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: July 15, 2026
This review contains spoilers
Fall of the House of Slaughter #3 begins with the White Masks, as they’re fighting/running from the monster they’d been sent after. Cecilia’s demanding to see the report on this, and sure enough…the threat level is nowhere near what they’d been led to believe at all. She needs more information, and now.
Back at the house, Maxine swaps out her black mask for a scarlet one, looking to sneak into Colin’s office for the actual report. One problem: his office is locked, and she doesn’t have a key.
Colin’s walking through with some of the violet masks, discussing the election, when he has a run-in with Maxine. In the confusion, she swipes his keys and goes back to his office. As she gets in there, she’s going over her observations with an increasingly-impatient Cecilia.
At the school, Cecilia soon finds herself entirely alone. Not ideal.
Colin realizes his keys are missing soon enough, and gets back to his office just as Maxine finds what she was looking for. But Colin’s not mad at her. In fact, he’s a bit impressed by her. He knows she’s smart. He also knows that Elijah wouldn’t be the best choice for a Dragon (brain tumor), and proceeds to taunt Cecilia over the phone about his burning the file she was so insistent upon seeing…
Colin’s certainly proving to be a piece of work. It may be Maura’s name on that inaccurate report, but he’s the one pulling the strings. Orchestrating a situation where there’s a very good chance that she (and the team of White Masks with her) wouldn’t make it back alive purely to make sure the election goes his way seems to be working so far. Still kind of a low blow.
Also, he’d known about Elijah’s tumor for a while. As in long before the nomination even came up. And yet he’d nominated him anyway, despite knowing the younger man had little time left. No, it’s after the nomination, when the Violet Masks are there to deal with everything, that Elijah learns: “Oh, by the way, your brain’s gonna kill you.”.
Colin doesn’t deny, during his conversation with Cecilia, that he’s gunning for the position. But he doesn’t outright admit it, either. So is he looking to take the teeth for himself? Or is he likely to try and install someone else he could manipulate? Though there’s also the possibility that he’s just outright sabotaging the election with the plan of taking down the whole House.
Am wondering, still, if Maxine would be a viable option for the position of Dragon. Colin does point out in Fall of the House of Slaughter #3 that she’s observant, Cecilia’s asked her to look for the report in the first place, she’s spent a bit of time with the Old Dragon on his death bed, and her own death doesn’t seem anywhere near as impending as Elijah’s.
On a visual level, I love the fact that Colin’s text boxes have a white-on-red motif to them in Fall of the House of Slaughter #3. Not only does it tie into the same color theme with his mask, but it also has a slightly insidious air to it.
Also, throughout this whole story, we see Cecilia losing her cool more and more often. For the situation she’s in, though, it’s an extremely normal, human reaction. And that moment where she suddenly finds herself alone, while the monster’s still around, is one that I definitely appreciate. It’s a splash page, everything’s at a bit of an angle, and she looks rather small and alone against the empty hallway, and that just works so well on a visual storytelling level.
I’m still quite curious as to how the final chapter will end up going. The election’s set to be decided soon, Colin’s revealed just how much of a shady bastard he is, and things on Cecilia’s end of things are just as tense as ever.
Final Thoughts
In its penultimate installment, Fall of the House of Slaughter effectively shows just how slimy Colin can be. It’s a solid issue, with a few questions still to be answered.
