Image Comics 2015
Written by Brian Buccellato
Illustrated by Toni Infante
This book has all the creepiness and intrigue you could possibly ask for. As we open with what appears to be some cult leader who has sired so many children with the women who follow him, he as the two different coloured eyes that mark many of his children, and he talks about how they have the faced the greatest evil in the world and how they have chosen to live and can choose how to die as well. I think what makes it more scary and why it fascinates so much is because it can be true. We’ve seen dynamic cult leaders and what they can do with their words and that Brian can weave that into this is a real testament to his skill as a writer.
Meanwhile of course Officer Pope wants more time off as he has a lead on Vanessa but he’s denied the time off as he’s taken too many of em already. Yet before we head on he receives a message to come get his child because they are scared. A small prelude to the role he’ll play in this for sure but there really isn’t any greater pain a parent can face than knowing their child is in fear.
So as Travis is moving in with his girlfriend Detective Young stops by to ask a few more questions that sound suspiciously as if he’s hinting it was Travis who killed him. His questioning about the connection to him and Klay and the search for his parents well it’s all but seriously Young is going about this as if Travis has more or a known connection to what’s happening than he does and he’s like that dog with bone who just won’t let go of a train of thought once he has it, could be he doesn’t have many trains of thought to latch onto I dunno.
I have to say i’m awfully impressed with how Brian is having the story keep moving forward and sometimes in ways that seem completely random and yet feel so perfectly right. While his girlfriend wants to meet the photographer Klay found, who happens to be a local and is willing to do all the talking when Travis recognizes the voice as belonging to the man who killed Klay well it should seem more farfetched than it is but there are no coincidences it all happens for a reason. Also I like that she knew that this man recognized Travis and he’s not making this up so she’s behind him, supportive and loving though now I have to wonder if it’s real love or a set up of some kind.
This is exciting stuff it has all the nuances of an old time mystery thriller woven into something stranger and more unnatural. There are moments I get this whole Omen feel and that Travis is the next Damian though he’s completely unaware of any of it. His past is complete mystery to him, he has no clue to who his parents were and why he as this temper of his. There are those keeping an eye on him and monitoring him and keeping him from finding the truth he so desperately searches for making things that much more interesting and fueling the desire in the reader to keep coming back as we too search for those answers.
Toni’s interior artwork keeps that kind of old school noir feel to the book while still being expressive and at time explosive.
This is one of those books that captures your attention and imagination wonderfully and embroils you in the characters life and troubles in a way rarely seen.