For once the grimdark reboot actually works. To an extent.
Creative Staff:
Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Artist: Robert Hack
Lettering: Jack Morelli
What They Say
A comic book HORROR MASTERPIECE from two creators at the top of their game—collected for the first time!
On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, young sorceress Sabrina Spellman finds herself at a crossroads, forced to choose between an unearthly destiny and her own mortal boyfriend, Harvey. But Madam Satan, a deadly foe from her family’s past, has arrived in Greendale, and she has her sights set squarely on the young witch. Can Sabrina face the challenge, or will her witching career—and high school life—end all too abruptly?
Harvey Award winning writer ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA (Archie Meets GLEE, Afterlife with Archie, The CW’s Riverdale) and artist ROBERT HACK (Doctor Who, The X-Files) brings this compelling and shocking re-imagining of Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s occult origins to spine-tingling life.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s 2016. By this point in human pop culture history, the mere mentioning of gritty reboots is enough to get blasted out of the internet stratosphere by the rest of its denizens that know better. And yet Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is able to take that concept and roll with it well enough for me not to mind. Testing the waters with a darker, grittier Sabrina in Afterlife with Archie, Chilling Adventures finally delves deeper with the character, better establishing this iteration’s backstory and cast of characters.
Upon starting the comic, you’re immediately met with Hack’s beautiful art that sets the tone for the series so well. It’s the perfect blend of rough lines, and elegant colors that fully immerses yourself in this 1950’s setting filled with fancypants, distinguished characters hiding grimdark secrets—a recurring theme throughout this volume’s collection of the first five issues.
We begin on Halloween night in 1951, where Edward Theodore Spellman and a horde of witches forcefully take his baby daughter Sabrina from his mortal wife, Diana. The scene plays out like a classic horror movie, filled with incredibly handsome and beautiful people spouting over-the-top lines, elaborate mansions, and chase scenes through a dark atmospheric forest. You don’t spend much time with Edward before his mysterious disappearance, leading to the oh-so-familiar setup of Sabrina living with his aunts Hilda and Zelda, but his actions both seen and unseen for the time being leave a ripple effect for what’s to come.
Being half mortal and half witch, the gist of Chilling Adventures is the same as past series iterations, as Sabrina must find a middleground between her two identities. Rather than focusing on the sitcom-friendly hijinks that is her high school and slowly working magic into the plot from there, though, we’re heavily dealt the reverse as we’re given a solid foundation for the ins-and-outs of the magical world, from animal familiars like Salem, to the apparent sexism still present in the Witches Council. It reaches the point that once we do get some focus on the more mundane and human world, it feels jarring and painfully shallow as Sabrina deals with the likes of her school’s mean girls, as well as boyfriend drama and anxiety over who gets the lead role in the upcoming school play. Thankfully, a dark twist on those premises works their way in soon enough, as love spells, death, and Satan himself worm their ways into the plot.
As interesting as the story itself gets, however, its execution leaves something to be desired. Rather than allowing its rich cast to define themselves through their own interactions, too much is shoved aside in favor of a running narration dryly explaining everything instead. In some cases, the narration works, making the story feel more like a late-night campfire story made to keep kids awake in fear. A majority of the time, though, the narration overshadows its characters, feeling like a lazy means to skip over certain plot details and drag the story along when it could have developed well enough at a natural pace. Family characters like Edward, Hilda and Zelda feel especially unrealized, as we’re given less motivation from them and more like a laundry list of traits we just have to accept as their character, the story being too preoccupied with itself to really flesh out its cast in an organic way.
In Summary:
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina volume 1 is a prime example of a good story with a poor execution. As solid as its art and cast of characters are, it never feels like they reach their full potential due to such an obtrusive narration that never lets the characters speak for themselves. Nonetheless, the plot progression is interesting, leaning heavily towards the intentionally grimdark over the sitcommy cleanliness that prior iterations have been known for.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: Teen
Released By: Archie Comics
Release Date: August 16, 2016
MSRP: $17.99
