New town, same grim darkness.
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Sally Cantirino
Colors: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: Jim Campbell
What They Say:
Something evil… something hungry… lurks in the cold darkness of Bear Creek, and it’s up to our misfit sales team to destroy the vicious creatures. You know what that means. Fishing trip!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first run of the book was one where 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. As we move into the next storyline, I’m glad that there’s no change in the art side as the incredibly talented Sally Cantirino feels like they’re getting only stronger with the design work here. 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 some big moments in the previous issue, this one has the story moving forward a bit as the group heads to the next town, Bear Creek. With Laney fully on board at this point, she gets to see some of the ways they move into a place and what they have to do in order to start knocking on doors. Hitting up the fire chief is a given as you’d expect but this time they’re not able to do that right away. The chief, and other first responders, are dealing with a local guy who has been missing for a few days and his body has surfaced in the river where it looks like it’s been chewed on heavily. It’s amusing to see some in the group trying to say that it may just be fish or a croc instead of something nefarious like they’ve been dealing with, but the reality is that they know better. So we don’t get much in terms of settling into town and knocking on doors this time.
Going into the river on a small boat in the dark of night with some of them that have never even been on a boat before makes for some amusement, though Laney in particular is up to it. There are nods of deeper things in the backgrounds here but it’s fun to watch them deal with it all – and for Alex to take some pain meds in order to cope with his back. The book doesn’t hold back from revealing what’s really out there as they discover mermen of sorts that drag them all down to the depths while the mermaids look to consume them while the siren song plays. It’s only thanks to Alex that they weirdly manage to survive since he’s so out of it on the drugs, but it delivers some fantastic pages with Cantirino going all-out here and getting some gorgeous color work from Cunniffe. The combination is perfect small-town horror stuff with the creepy supernatural angle that’s unnerving even if we don’t know the why of it all.
In Summary:
While there are still answers we want from the previous issue and what we know of the characters so far, this one just throws us into the story of a new town and a sped-up pace to discovering the darkness within. It’s interesting to see that type play out instead of the creeping horror and it has me wondering what’s next, especially if we do stay in Bear Creek for more. Bunn gets the right chills here and teases enough character stuff to leave you wanting more there but this is an installment that lets Cantirino’s artwork really shine with its design style and layouts and what Cunniffe brings to it with the coloring. Really good stuff once again.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: April 26th, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
