Reviews by PedRo Cabezuelo
Ryan Shelby has just moved into a new house with his wife and dog when his ideal life is suddenly shattered by the arrest of his neighbour, Edgar Driscoll. There’s been a rash of missing children in the area and Edgar, a convicted pedophile, is the number one suspect.
But the arrest goes wrong and a violent gunfight ensues with Ryan caught in the middle. Complicating matters, Edgar hints at a history be- tween himself and his new neighbour, one that Ryan is desperate to forget. When bodies start exploding around him, Ryan begins to question his sanity. With Crawl to Me, Alan Robert has crafted a disturbing story that hints at madness and the supernatural. His art adds to the delirium with brash uses of colour to convey mood. Splashes of red and blue dominate monochromatic frames, drawing the reader into the story as much as the words. A very intriguing start.
In the mash-up Hack/Slash Meets Zombies vs. Cheerleaders, Cassie and Vlad
(the title characters of H/S) go undercover at a high school to root out what they suspect is a serial killer doing away with local teens. What they find instead is not completely un- expected considering the book’s title. This one-shot is an entertaining read, but never really takes off, prima- rily due to how much of the book is spent setting up the conflict. By the time the zom- bie subplot is revealed, there are only a handful of pages left and the climactic confrontation is all too brief. Still,
Cassie and Vlad make a fun couple and there’s a lot of humour to be found in Cassie joining the cheerleading squad while Vlad makes the football team. Not a classic but fans of the duo should be satisfied.
I hate Flashpoint, but I’m a big fan of Jeff Lemire so I reluc-
tantly picked up Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown, yet another DC mega-crossover event. For those unfamiliar, Flash- point presents an alternate time- line of the DC universe. In this reality, Frankenstein’s monster has teamed up with a vampire, wolf man and aquatic lizard girl, originally to fight in WWII. How- ever, the misfits now find them- selves hunted in modern times –
after a bout of sus- pended animation – by the military, G.I. Robot, the Creature Commandos and a fe- male mercenary with a personal grudge. It’s a good premise squandered on a throwaway miniseries like this, yet it bodes well for Lemire’s up- coming work on Ani- mal Man
and
Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Ibraim
Roberson’s art is great (although his Frankenstein looks too much like the Hulk), but he only draws two- thirds of the book, with Alex Massacci filling in the rest; a noticeable change that’s slightly obtrusive. Worth a look, but not a must-read.
Witch Doctor introduces us to the titular Dr. Vincent Morrow and his companions, the hapless
Eric Gast and the not-quite-human Penny Dreadful. Together they try to find the scientific and medical solutions to various occult prob- lems. For example, in this issue the Doctor and company are called in to cure a young boy of his demonic possession. Brandon Seifert has created a very com- pelling character in Vincent, a log- ical and charming rogue who manages to keep his wits when the ectoplasm starts flying. Eric and Penny are a bit less defined, but I expect that to change in fu- ture installments. Lukas Ketner’s art has a great old-school EC feel to it and sets the book’s tone per-
fectly. A solid start to what will hopefully amount to a whole series of adventures.
In the relaunched Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze has been separated from the Spirit of Vengeance,
which now finds itself inhabiting the body of a young woman. It’s an interesting premise that unfortunately becomes bogged down by yet another company-wide saga, the unending “Fear Itself.” As a result, the ma- jority of this issue sees the new Ghost Riderette fight- ing one of the main villains from that storyline. It’s an odd and ineffective way to launch a new series when the attention should be on Blaze and his relationship with the new host. At the very least, it should show- case a villain integral to this story. Still, the last page bodes well for the future.
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