A new kind of threat appears.
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Sally Cantirino
Colors: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: Jim Campbell
What They Say:
Fred and the rest of “the best damned door-to-door sales team” have always had a knack for getting into trouble, but now that they’ve witnessed supernatural forces first-hand, they can’t help but spot monsters, ghosts, and foul ne’er-do-wells wherever they go. Case in point, they’ve stumbled upon an infestation of otherworldly goblins in Hopkinsville, who are driving the townsfolk to murder! And when the team can’t trust their own eyes, how will they face the minions of evil?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With this new series getting underway previously, I enjoyed the mystery of whether it would be a Cullen Bunn project that I’d really get into or one that would leave me a little too disturbed to really engage with. I’m definitely a fan of what they put out but there’s a good bit of variance with what clicks and that makes me more interested than a lot of other writers because I have no idea what to expect, especially with most of the works learning into the horror side well. For this book, he’s working with the incredibly talented Sally Cantirino who absolutely delighted me with their recent project Human Remains, also from Vault Comics. I adore their style here in how they get into the look of the characters and the kind of weariness to a lot of them combined with such a detailed and lived-in world but without it being hyper-realistic. It’s a land of contrasts that delivers in a huge way for me.
With a lot of the basics set up in the previous issue, this one has the group making their way through Hopperfille to help the fire department. They’re obviously clued into the bigger picture of what exists out there in the world with what we saw the last time around and it’s interesting to see how they’re practically seeing things around every corner. We also get to experience more of small-town life with this as they go through the door-to-door approach and people are all kinds of tense. But the tension that we get here is something more as they’re almost paranoid, even though Fred and the gang are being pretty basic in their approach with the coupons and all. It’s familiar stuff but it’s also mixed in with elements from the groups’ past coming in from time to time to show you how their lives have changed.
But we do see some of the darkness going on behind closed doors and that even happens to the group at the motel when a literal small demon comes a knocking. That has Fred giving chase only to return and be attacked himself. I really liked seeing the way the group does get into a real fight and eventually slows their roll a bit as they realize that they’re seeing things. And that it explains the other incidents that they’ve seen hearing from around town as well. And with their wider view of the world at this point, it has them doing the right kind of follow-through to see if it is something truly otherworldly out there and that delivers a great spooky big point toward the end as we see just what’s infecting the town and causing the problems. And just how badly it’s going to go for this group.
In Summary:
I’m really interested in see just where the team wants to go with this book as it definitely has some interesting ideas. The first issue really was quite character heavy and this one doesn’t exactly abandon that but it dials it down significantly in order to deal with the weirdness of the twon and the conflict it creates with the characters themselves. I’m definitely interested to see more of what this new creature is and what will come from it and how the team adjusts, but also how it impacts the locals. We’re just at the cusp of the weirdness and I hope that the team gets a chance to really explore what it is and what this book can become.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: December 28th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
