Abattoir #1 – Review

by Darren Lynn Bousman (creator), Michael Peterson (concept), Rob Levin (writer), Troy Peteri (writer & letterer), Bing Cansino (art), and Andre Pervukhin (colors)

The Story: Real-estate agent Rich Ashwalt finds himself tasked with selling a house stained by a horrific, bloody massacre. Enter Jebediah Crone, a creepy guy who seems weirdly eager to purchase the place…

What’s Good: I’ve often felt that the best horror stories are those that feel realistic in its setting and its characters.  The closer to reality, the more unsettling the injected disturbance is.  Abattoir seems to get this.

Main character Rich Ashwalt is a strong one if only because of his normalcy.  His marital discord with his wife feels natural, as it never comes close to reaching over the top histrionics.  There’s a sense of distrust, tension, and loss, but also love.   Similarly, Rich’s relationship with his daughter is tender and paints Rich instantly as a good father, yet it never veers close to feeling saccharine or picturesque.  In many ways, the same goes for his friendship with his work buddy Patrick, which, while their back-and-forth dynamic is fun to read, feels common.  All of this makes Abattoir’s world relatable.

This makes the more mysterious horror elements all the more menacing.  There’s a constant tension and a sense of something encroaching.  In some ways, it mirrors the tension in Rich’s marriage; it’s there, roiling beneath the surface and becoming increasingly anxious to break the surface.  The gory massacre that haunts the town’s memory plays a big role in this; it’s a bubbling over of the horror and insanity that lurks below all the every day normalcy of this setting and its characters and now, in Abattoir’s world, it continues to linger.  The town and its characters are forced to confront, and unable to forget, this ugliness, no matter how much they want to.  That, in itself, is quintessentially Gothic.

Dark X-Men: The Confession #1 – Review

By Craig Kyle and Chris Yost (writers), Bing Cansino (Penciller), Roland Paris (Inker)

The Story: Secrets that have been eating at both Scott and Emma– secrets that could break them apart and exile them from the X-Men, must surface.

What’s Good: Kyle and Yost deliver some very fine character and relationship work in this one-shot. Shameful secrets are caustic to a relationship. They’re minor betrayals that eat away at the bridges between people in love. The writing team understands that and shows us the cracks between Scott and Emma, as well as the pain it causes them. There are lots of great elements here, served in non-linear, interrupting dialogue, just the way it would be in real life if two people were grasping at a difficult honesty in a last-ditch try to stay together. Scott and Emma, as all the best lovers can be, are experts at denial. They also live in fear of losing each other, and this, more than any love scene Kyle and Yost could have written, really showed the depths of Scott and Emma’s love. And telling the truth, for each of them, is hard, despite how quickly Scott forces it once he’s made up his mind to do so.

One last bit I really liked relates to how every villain looks in the mirror and sees a hero. Every villain justifies himself. That’s a good rule, but it ignores the role of shame, and of people who know the difference between right and wrong, and either through weakness and choices, do not follow the high road. Scott and Emma both suffer from this and it’s poignant stuff.

The art was quite suited to the emotional moments. The art is a very fine-lined style in spots, but the faces are as expressive as they need to be to carry the emotional weight the writing team has put on the story.

What’s Not So Good: The art team’s style was a bit strained in some of the action flashbacks, with occasionally awkward postures, especially around Wolverine and that last splash page. And where the fine lines and light inks made the emotional story work, they kept the action scenes from having the weight and depth they needed to really evoke tension and danger.

Conclusion: Kyle and Yost deliver a really strong boy loses girl character story, tied to everything that’s going on in the Marvel Universe right now. And I have to say, there’s a lot more to this couple than there ever was with Scott’s relationship with Jean.

Grade: B+

-DS Arsenault

Spawn #175 – Review

By David Hine (writer), Bing Cansino & Geirrod Van Dyke (art)

So I picked up this book because it’s been ages since I’ve read Spawn. #175 sounds like a nice number for a new reader to come aboard, right? Besides, it sports this Simon Bisley-esque cover by Greg Capullo which looks kinda cool. But Spawn isn’t Spawn. He’s oddly dressed up in cowboy garb! Another thing I noticed is that the old Spawn logo is gone, replaced by the awful new logo used on the Spawn toys (I think). Bring back the old logo please.

The last time I read Spawn was around issue #75 – that’s 100 issues ago! Well, a lot has happened since then. Thankfully, page one gives you a brief run down to get you caught up. The book is way more graphic than it used to be, and the painted art by Bing Cansino and Geirrod Van Dyke is jaw-droppingly stunning. But that’s where my accolades end. The story is a yawn fest. You know what’s going to happen, you just read along as author David Hine goes through the motions.

It appears that Spawn has been a running theme in Al Simmons family. The story that’s currently going on is about his grandfather and how he and a friend are nearly put to death in the old west. But at the last minute, they’re offered a deal with the devil. Simmons’ ancestor, Francis Parker, declines, but his friend doesn’t. Next thing you know, he’s the old west version of Spawn, killing all the people he deems as guilty.

While we come to learn how the Simmons name came about in Spawn #175, this story feels out of place. I thought a story like this was reserved for the Spawn satellite books. Not anymore, I guess. From what I remember, Spawn was originally an urban book about mystery, the supernatural, and redemption. Now it’s just a predictable, gratuitous tale of revenge filled with violent money shots. I really want to enjoy Spawn again, I really do. But this issue does nothing for me, and that makes me sad. (Grade: D-)

– J. Montes