Berger Books/Dark Horse Comics 2019
Written by J.M. DeMatteis
Illustrated by Corin Howell
Coloured by James Devlin
Lettered by Clem Robbins
This series is rated Adults Only
DISCLAIMER: sadistic violence
Is it possible for the same woman to be murdered twice? Thrown fifty years into the future, lost in a world both familiar and terrifying, Kathy Sartori tries to solve the riddle of her own murder—only to find herself faced with another tragic and brutal death.
I think last issue didn’t adequately prepare for this one. And let’s face it last issue was freakin dynamite too and introduced us to the crazy life and world of young Kathy. I love what J.M. is doing here and I think most folks understand there is more talent with him than just that whole funny Justice League stuff he did in the 90’s. Trust me in the late 70’s he did a run on House of Mystery, Weird War Tales and the Unexpected. So his prowess as a writer is extremely varied and prolific with multiple companies. It has just been way too long since he got to cut loose on something so wonderfully and deliciously dark like this and personally I can’t get enough of it.
While there is still the mystery of who it was that not only saved Kathy’s life but sent her into a future where she never died that night. I mean sure we all know about alternate timelines and such but we are as much in the dark as to what is truly going on here as Kathy is and I gotta tell ya, I think this is one of it’s biggest assets. I love that we are being kept in the dark as it makes the revelations feel that much bigger and larger than life, it keeps on the edge as well eagerly awaiting to learn what’s next. There is this delicious tension that you begin to feel in your shoulders it just makes want more.
There are some very nice interchange between characters here as well as this really nice way of introducing new ones. J.M. manages to get this feeling as natural as the waterway feeding into the bay. Sometimes a story can move forward and you’ve no idea what is going on, it’s hard to see the forest from the trees but here everything is so smooth like a hot knife through butter. It just happens and you see it but never notice it because the pacing moves it all seemingly at once which is another of my admirations of the man himself.
I am also a fan of the interior artwork here as well. There is very much a separation in different aspects of how we see things. The Green Lady (Gaia?) has this finesse, grace and beauty, Kathy has this more traditional comic style and finally there’s Hugh and his source. Each one has their own distinct ways that we see them and as we weave in and out and through each other’s time on the page I enjoy the way that we see them. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show us this very wonderful eye for storytelling. The way backgrounds are being utilised is gorgeous and for me to see this level of attention to detail in them oh mama mia. The colour work too is delightful and there’s something special about choices made here and there, how the ghost magic works and in that in memoriam page that stick with the reader.
There is this dark, twisted and deeply disturbing mystery going on within these pages and it is really easy to get caught up in this and forget about the time and space surrounding those in this book and those in real life. This is the comic book version of a what could be a Netflix series it’s so well written and visually a very cinematic feel and me, I just want to bask in this a while.