Halloween: The First Death Of Laurie Strode #1 (of 3) – Review

By Stefan Hutchinson (writer), Jeff Zornow (pencils), Nick Filardi (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters), Sean K Dove (design), Scott Hampton, Tim Seeley, Ryan Browne (alternate covers)

The Story: In the wake of the Haddonfield Massacre (from the first movie), Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis’ character) is trying to deal with a number of problems. First, her long lost brother Michael is an indestructible killing machine who wants her dead. Second, she’s coming to terms with the fact that her life is a lie; her adopted parents never told her the truth about the aforementioned boogieman. Wrap all this up in a traumatized teenage girl and that’s Laurie Strode.

Lately, Laurie’s been feeling a pull to get out of Haddonfield. Let’s hope (for her sake) that it pulls a little harder.

What’s Good? The book does a good job of recreating the domestic feel of Halloween when Michael isn’t around. Another plus is the imagery. I say imagery and not pencils because I like the essence of what’s being implied more than what’s “just on the page”.

Most of the effort goes into making Michael look good, so his mask and jumpsuit look great and have the appropriate lack of detail. Everything else is left in the cold as far as that’s concerned which is a shame since Michael isn’t actually involved in most of the book. But, seeing Michael’s face in the clouds during the cemetery scene is a great shot. Even in “death” he’ll always be there, a permanent shadow over Laurie’s life.

What’s Not So Good? Yes, they’ve nailed the parts without Michael Myers – it’s commendable – but those were also the boring parts of the movie(s). If he’s not there to stare and setup tension, or kill, it’s just kids sitting around unaware. What’s more disappointing is the overall feel of the issue. How many of us bought this book based on the title? My guess is nine out of ten readers would be fans of the films. As such, Stefan Hutchinson could have spent the majority of this time jumping into the story instead of using a full book to recap the first and second movie.

Conclusion: It’s an interesting concept for fans of the Halloween series – if you ever wanted to know the details of how Laurie died. To learn more than the one sentence reason given as to why Laurie isn’t in Halloween 4, 5,and 6, this book seems to be the place to go. There are two issues left to explain how she gets the idea to fake her death. Unfortunately, since there is so little movement in this issue, I have my doubts that everything will get wrapped up neatly.

(Grade: D)

-Ben Berger

A Second Opinion

I’m not sure what to think of this story since it seems like it may contradict Halloween IV. But there’s definitely some merit in this story and it could, if written cleverly enough, fit into film continuity. As far as first issues go, this one’s par for the course, chock full of setup and a too much exposition.

Laurie’s narrative is lifeless and wooden, which in a way, almost feels natural after the events she’s just been through. On the other hand, the dialogue and interplay between characters feels much more natural with the exception of one scene involving clunky excerpts from a diary. The art is a mixed bag, too. Pedestrian scenes are poorly drawn while the nightmarish montages ooze with creepiness.

All in all, this is a decent start to the series, I just hated the surprise reappearance of Loomis at the end. Talk about feeling way too forced and coincidental. This book also needs more consistency on all fronts.

Grade: C-

– J. Montes

Marvel Zombies 3 #1 – Review

By Fred Van Lente (Writer), Kev Walker (Artist), and Jean Francois-Beaulieu (Colorist)

The Story: The zombies invade the Marvel 616 Universe and quickly make their presence known by striking at The Command, Florida’s state Initiative team. In response, The Alternate Reality Monitoring and Operational Response Agency (A.R.M.O.R.) enlists the help of Machine Man to find a cure before the zombie contagion spreads beyond control. But alas, not all is as it seems…

What’s Good: Fred Van Lente and Kev Walker ably pick up where Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips left off by delivering the camp, humor, and gore expected from the Marvel Zombies stories. Simply put, if you liked it then, you should like it now.  One thing I noticed is that by placing the zombies within the proper Marvel Universe this time around there is an added weight and urgency to the storyline. It goes a long way in making sure the issue avoids feeling like nothing more than a cheap cash-in or overplayed gimmick.

What’s Not So Good: The fact that the first part of the storyline deals strictly with the “C” (or even “D”)-list heroes of the Marvel Universe makes this not so good. I have nothing against playing around in the Marvel sandbox (Avengers: The Initiative is one of my favorites), but the threat loses a bit a credibility when it seems as though the major heroes couldn’t be bothered by something as trivial as alternate reality zombies.

Also worth mentioning is the different visual style used for Marvel Zombies 3. While Kev Walker’s work is both visually attractive and suitably violent, it lacks the punch that made Sean Phillips’ work in Marvel Zombies 1 and 2 so memorable. The first Zombies stories, while definitely entertaining, became something more thanks to the unique, stand-out artwork. Now, unfortunately, Marvel Zombies 3 looks like it could be any other Marvel book on the stand.

Conclusion: Marvel Zombies 3 is off to an entertaining, though unremarkable start. You pretty much know what you are getting into when you pick up a book like this.  Keep in mind that the introduction of the proper Marvel Universe could be reason enough for even the most skeptical readers to at least give this one a try.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

A Second Opinion

Only a fool would try and recreate the magic that Robert Kirkman conjured with the previous installments of this series. Unfortunately, Fred Van Lente is charged with the task and fails to succeed.

With the absense of the core zombies characters Marvel Zombies 3 falls flat on its face. I dig Kev Walker’s art, no doubt about that. His Floridian swamps scenes are hauntingly beautiful. Having a small scene with Man-Thing is great and the inclusion of Morbius into the story is a nice touch, but ultimately, it’s just not enough. There’s too much set up, exposition, and pointless dialogue to keep this one interesting.

Marvel Zombies is not Shakespeare. It’s messed up fun! And all the charm that made its predecessors such a gory delight is disturbingly absent. Please fix this!

Grade: D+

-J. Montes

Halloween: Night Dance #1 – Review

By Stefan Hutchinson (writer), Tim Seeley (art), Elizabeth John (colors)

I’ll admit it, Halloween is my favorite horror franchise. The stuff John Carpenter did with the first and second movies was profound and groundbreaking. The later movies weren’t very good, but I did like the new characters introduced and the sense of continuity that played out. Rob Zombie’s remake? Eh, it was okay.

So how is Halloween: Night Dance? I wish I could say I liked it. From the opening pages it had problems. Writer Stefan Huchinson moves through his opening cast of characters so quickly it’s very hard to understand who is narrating, what’s going on, and who these people are. We’re introduced to Lisa, an 18 year old girl who narrates the story like a 13 year old; she says she feels like a freak, but she speaks like a child. Next, we have Ryan and Marcie whose expository dialogue feels trite, forced, and unnatural. Eventually their paths begin to intersect by way of Michael Myers and then we’re left with a “to be continued”.

Tim Seeley, the best penciler working at Devil’s Due, handles art chores. I enjoyed his art on the Forgotten Realms books, and his work here is good, but I really wish they’d give him an inker. As good as his pencils are, they’re not refined – there’s pencil marks all over the place and it looks tacky. So it falls upon colorist, Elizabeth John, to cover up as much of the imperfections as she can. Another odd thing about this book is the changing font sizes. Sometimes the lettering is small, other pages it’s two sizes bigger. What gives? It’s distracting!

There’s no tension in this book. No suspense. The main character is completely annoying and her narrative is overly written. There’s nothing here to like. However, if you must read this book, I highly suggest waiting for the trade. As it stands now, nothing happens in this book to hold your interest. And I know that there’s probably a lot of Halloween fans out there, but three different variant covers is a bit excessive. (Grade: F)

– J. Montes

A Second Opinion

I have to agree with Jay on this one. It’s hard to understand who is narrating. There are subtle changes in the color of the narration which are barely noticeable and if you’re not paying close attention to the color changes you’re going to lose track of who’s speaking. The script could have been better. The pacing is off, too; I guess Hutchinson is taking it slow.

I didn’t have any problems with the art, and I disagree with Jay when he says adding an inker will improve it. I said this before: I don’t like remakes or sequels with people who didn’t work with the original material. But, there will be always an audience. I won’t be picking up issue #2. (Grade: D-)

-Daniel Yanez