DC Comics Black Label 2020
Written by Joe Hill
Illustrated by Stuart Immonen
Coloured by Dave Stewart
Lettered by Deron Bennett
After discovering a corpse upon the Sinnikik Atoll, Moriah Lamb leads a team to hunt for other castaways, while Gage Carpenter begins the exploration of the ghost ship Derleth. But there’s something down there in the icy darkness of the Arctic sea, something that doesn’t want to be found. And it isn’t any safer on land. There are things waiting for the search party in the mountain caves, things that were once human...and aren’t quite any longer.
So at the end of last issue and finding that dying inmate is where we pick up here. I really like the way that this is being told. Joe understands how things work in storytelling and to make this feel as close to film or a mini-series (television) means getting the pacing we see to be completely on point. Thus it doesn't feel like there is a lot of time for the characters to gather their wits while everything around them continues to spiral out of their control. It has this element to it where it feels right, real and natural and that's the kind of storytelling that we crave.
The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented to the reader perfectly. Honestly I don't want to know what is going to happen next, let us learn alongside the characters unless of course it builds the tension and suspense further. Like seeing them being watched but not know who, what, why or the how of it all. The character development we see here is fantastic and I really like how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances they keep facing. This is constantly changing who they are and honestly I am waiting to be surprised by someone whom I immediately disliked or thought was useless and so far Joe's writing one of the more intriguing and interesting books out there. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way we are getting on hell of an ebb & flow to this book.
I am loving every moment of this. There are so many elements here that keep things moving and taking the ordinary into the extreme by circumstances that are man made in their origin. This isn't a thing where it's hey look monsters, no what we see is environmental damage on a scale that has genetically changed the species in this isolated place and thus creating new lifeforms that we have never experience.
Stuart is slaying the interiors here. The linework is mindbogglingly exquisite to say the least. How we see the varying weights being utilised to showcase the attention to detail and his creativity and imagination is sublime. If you haven't seen this yes then shame on you because it is my humble opinion that this is the best work Stuart's ever shown us. With his portfolio that's mighty impressive for me to say. The way that backgrounds are utilised here and how they work within the composition in the panels to bring us the depth perception, scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book we see is utterly marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts an dhow we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a masters eye for storytelling. The colour work here is gorgeous and how it's rendered to heighten the mood and atmosphere of the book is beautiful stuff. I like the way that we see hues and tones within the colours to create the shading, highlights and shadow work. Dave shows off why he's as much a master of colour as Stuart is linework and imagery.
The is the next evolution in the horror genre in the comics medium. From the days of The Witching Hour and Ghosts to this it is high time that we got the same kind of excitement and thrill out of horror comics again without all the gore and guts. Hitchcock said that the audience can come up with scenarios far scarier than anyone and so he never showed the deed. For me this is where DC is shining brightest with the Black Label line of books.