A little quiet before the storm.
Creative Staff:
Story: Duane Swierczynski
Art: Howard Chaykin
What They Say:
“Flor de Muerto” After the soul-crushing events of “Bullet’s Kiss,” disfigured cop Greg Hettinger leaves Philly and checks into a Southern California rehab clinic. But a plane ride can’t separate Greg from his troubles. A fellow patient believes her former drug dealer (and lover) has sent someone to kill her, and it’s up to Greg to figure out which member of their circle is preparing to pull the trigger…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Black Hood in its first five issue arc served up some pretty gritty and hard times for our title character with what Greg suffered in the world and how he coped with it. The book wasn’t exactly a hard read, but it was one that really put you into the mindset of the characters and what they were all dealing with. Though there are familiar elements to it to be sure, we got into this guy’s head more than we do most characters with decades of stories being told about them. The result was a strong work overall that did what it could to present as close to reality how things might unfold while still providing for some thrill and excitement in taking on a new persona.
Before the new arc gets underway, The Black Hood is doing a bit of a one-off here tale that reconnects us with our title character once again. With the fallout of events from before, Greg has now found himself in southern California for some mandated therapy and counseling for his addiction. This places him in a group of other people with problems and they all keep their jobs and personal lives on the outside, focusing mostly just on their experiences without really going into who they are. It’s a bit tricky, but when you have someone that’s a cop in the group you kind of have to go this way. We see the reasoning early on as one of the others in there, a young woman, things that because of Greg’s disfigurement that he must have been a doctor or a drug dealer, so she wants to know more about him so she can connect and score on the outside once it’s all said and done. The reinforcement of just how bad addiction is becomes a solid undertone to the issue.
Where it focuses in the foreground is on Greg getting sucked into wearing the hood again as one of the other women in the group, Elisha, talks about how a cartel is after her since she might reveal things once she’s got her system cleaned out. It’s a reasonable approach and you can understand her hesitancy to going to the police and Greg’s hesitancy to getting involved. While there’s a nice, if minor, twist to what’s going on here, the fun is just seeing how Greg can’t resist getting back into the groove of things and doing the right thing. At his core, he’s a good guy who has the ability to do the right thing that others might not. But as we see here, he’s not always going to actually be doing the right thing and can be manipulated. It’s a short story overall yet it’s one that should have some ramifications down the line in making him a bit more wary of others and clearer of his own actual goals.
In Summary:
The return of The Black Hood is good and bad in a way. I quite enjoy the book and this installment definitely upped the ante with some great Howard Chaykin art that gives it its own distinctive feel while still feeling so much like what Gaydos’ artwork was like. It’s grim and gritty even while playing out along the beach and colors of the purgatory of SoCal. The bad part of it is that Greg is in such a rough place, even at the best of times, that it’s something that you can really feel. Swierczynski brings this pain to life in a strong way from what we had in the first arc and that’s still very much here under the surface and always a part of things. As a one-off, The Black Hood provides a look at where Greg is after what happened before and opens up the potential for what’s next in the story. It’s pretty open-ended to be sure and I’m definitely curious to see what’s in store for the next arc that’s about to get underway.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Dark Circle Comics
Release Date: October 28th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
