The descent continues.
Creative Staff:
Story: Paul Levitz
Art: Tim Hamilton
What They Say:
In a precinct not known for murder, a killer is on the loose. If Detective Billy O’Connor’s PTSD doesn’t get in the way, he may be able to help his partner Nadira Hasan solve this eerie case.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first two installments of Brooklyn Blood has certainly been interesting but it hasn’t come together in a strong way that really demands you return to it. Amid the other stories in DHP it certainly is easy to keep up with and that’s a big plus in its favor. There’s still this sense that it’s not truly revealed itself yet because you can’t be sure what it is that O’Connor’s dealing with and just how much is really going on in his head with the reality of things. That gets a little more surreal here this time around, but at the same time it just feels like there’s less meaty material to work with here.
With the second victim found and identified as a homeless man from the area, that opens up the potential a bit for someone trying to “clean the streets” for any number of reasons. It also gives them something to work with in seeing if there’s a connection with the first victim, who is still unidentified at this time. There’s a good sense out of O’Connor throughout this that this isn’t the kind of stuff that happens here and hasn’t in a long time, making it even more surreal for him. Both he and Nadira are going through the work as they should be and finding themselves getting worn down quickly with the toll it takes and just how few leads there are.
This is where it gets a little weird because the problems we’ve seen O’Connor struggle with for so long feel like they’re taking prominence now. When she returns to the precinct later in the chapter and he’s there working through paperwork, he essentially goes into full on vision mode and sees a kind of monster of sorts amid all of it. It just changes his view of events, which were nudged with the nod towards there being a plane crash in this area back in the 60’s, and there’s this sense of disparate threads possibly coming together. O’Connor is just coming across as off his rocker and off his meds with how everyone else is seeing him, Nadira included, but he’s starting to wonder if he’s seeing something in this case that nobody else is. Which is fine, but it feels like we need just a bit more for the readers to connect with at this stage.
In Summary:
I have no idea what the real story going on is here and I’m curious to figure it out, though they’re not making it a compelling case at the moment. The material with O’Connor is something that likely makes sense in the big picture but just doesn’t work in the month by month small chapter material as it almost feels like it’s padding things out. I love Hamilton’s material in here because he handles the various aspects well from the street side to the flashbacks to the war as well as these new near-demonic like elements. There’s still some real potential for an engaging story here but I’m struggling a bit waiting for a big hook to really sell it.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: February 17th, 2016
MSRP:
