The detail of the darkness grows but it feels like we’re walking in circles.
Creative Staff:
Story: Garth Ennis
Art: Goran Sudzuka
Colors: Ive Svorcina
Letterer: Rob Steen
What They Say:
The grim discoveries made by Shaw and McGregor seem hauntingly familiar, and their most recent and disturbing case may hold the answers. But as horror builds upon horror, those very answers may prove too much to bear—and even lead to their own damnation.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The deeper we get into this series the more frustrated I become with it. Garth Ennis isn’t a writer I seek out like I did back in the 90’s for some wild and crazy stuff with lots of disturbing elements but I was curious to see what he’d put together here with an intriguing sound series. Working with Goran Sudzuka, who is delivering some solid pages overall, we get a split story that’s going to reconnect at some point but for now just feels like two distinct works where neither feels grounded enough to connect with. So much so that at the end of the issue I’m hard pressed with what to talk about with either.
In the seeming present, Shaw and McGregor have realized that their best bet at this point is to continue exploring more rather than deal with the repetitive headshot case, which makes a lot of sense even if there’s potential for a lot more darkness out there. They spend more time halfway arguing than anything else while doing this and as McGregor begins to snap a bit more from the pressure of the situation they’re in. The problem is that as it progresses it doesn’t feel like we really get anywhere and we end up just kind of slogging through it all.
The flashbacks dig into more phases of the search for the man that may be behind the group that’s causing/forcing a lot of sex offenders to commit suicide. There’s a lot of lack of clarity about this storyline over the three issues that reminds me that some series are not going to work well with the month gaps between issues. The whole law enforcement side works well here in a general sense of giving it all some momentum but the problem is that the leaps it takes in time to advance things and with the out of left field twists and turns it all ends up kind of just existing there.
In Summary:
Stuff’s happening. I’m not sure why. I’m not sure what relates. I don’t see a hook to really hold me in a big way with it here outside of my own general interest in this kind of story, albeit one that I wish was told with a bit more meat and engagement with its readers on it. Sudzuka’s artwork continues to be a draw as he has to deal with some interesting things in the present storyline but Ennis’ scripting and layout of the story is leaving me more and more frustrated.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: July 25th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
