The Cold Witch #1 Review

If you have spent some time on Nerdy Nook, you’ll probably recognise ‘The Shrouded College‘ from just about every comic list on here. The Shrouded College is my favourite ongoing series and today, after what feels like a lifetime of waiting, we finally get the next instalment, The Cold Witch. Will this comic be worth the wait, and hold up to the flawless titles before it? Let’s talk about that in our The Cold Witch #1 review

In Nerdy Nook fashion, this review will be spoiler free though we will be talking about minor plot details to give readers some context. You have been warned

---

The Review

Image by Image Comics

The Cold Witch is a story of revenge, a romantic horror, compared by Charles Soule the creator to John Wick just with zombies. In The Cold Witch we follow the story of Violleta aka The Red Rope as she seeks to avenge her lovers death by using the very creature he was sent to capture, The Cold Witch.

As I said in the intro, The Shrouded College is my favourite ongoing series right now, so this might come across as a little biased. But, what I will say, is that it has earned that place with all the incredible issues that came before this one so at the same time, the bar was set very high for this one. I am very pleased to say it exceeded all my expectations.

From the very first pages, Violleta’s presence is strong, a true badass, but there is a villainous undertone to her intent. From the previous Shrouded College comics, we know that the college is not exactly the greatest of companies, but they seem to at least try to suppress the evils of the world – It will be very interesting to see Violleta rebel against them which could end up playing a much bigger part in the universe as a whole, which quite frankly sets up a very exciting story, one I am eager to see through.

The beautiful thing about The Shrouded College is that it can be read in any order, so if you have yet to start the series The Cold Witch #1 is as good a place as any to dive into this unique and fascinating world. However, if you do read other tales of The Shrouded College first (and I would personally recommend you do), you will be quickly met with some very familiar faces, power couple Maia and Sebastian. These were my two favourites characters from Hell to Pay, bringing them back was great for fans but also made this series feel so much more connected than ever before, especially as they play quite a big role.

Image by Image Comics

Will Sliney’s artwork as always is insanely creepy, beautiful but very creepy, the librarian being potentially the ugliest, freakiest, looking thing I have ever seen. These creepy beings are just so unique to anything else out there, they stick in your head like a realistic nightmare – I do not recommend reading this comic at 2am as I am now, but excellent work Will. Rachelle Rosenberg’s colours compliment these drawings in such a beautiful way and really bring the comic to life.

One thing that did take me out of it was a moment with a ring. Not just any ring. The kind of magic ring which turns you invisible and may eventually even turn you into a monster. You know the ring I mean? One a dark ruler named Sauron might use! I did not hate this, as a huge fan of Lord of the Rings I actually loved the homage, but I don’t know if it was supposed to be a homage or not – if it was not, the similarity is quite hard to look past. That is truly the only flaw I can find in this comic, and that wasn’t even a flaw.

Charles Soule and Will Sliney are creating something very special with The Shrouded College, we could not recommend these comics enough.

Image by Image Comics

The Cold Witch: A Tale of the Shrouded College #1 was a solid start to a beautifully tragic and compelling story. With returning characters contributing greatly to the storyline here, it is easy to see the bigger picture and everything The Shrouded College universe has to offer, we are excited to see where The Cold Witch goes from here.

What are your thoughts on The Cold Witch? Whatever your thoughts and feelings, share them with us in the comment section of this article. We love everything to do with The Shrouded College and would love nothing more than to discuss it with you!

See also: Most anticipated comics of 2025

• ShareCopied to clipboard
• X
• Facebook