New comic book Wednesday has come and gone. The dust at your local comic shop has settled. An eerie silence descends as you finish reading your last superhero book of the week. Now it's time for something a little more sinister. Welcome to Bagged and Boarded: comic reviews of the sick, spooky, twisted and terrifying!
Morbius: The Living Vampire No. 8
Morbius has been tricked. He's been lied to, he's hurt people, and now Brownsville's about to pay for his mistakes. Or so it seems. A villain in a full face mask named The Rose has an Ultimate Nullifier, a sort of pocket device of great power, force, and destruction. He's just blown up part of Brownsville, and now Morbius has to overcome his own self-loathing and fight back.
Bag it or board it up? I'm from the generation, now not as young as we wish we were, that grew up watching the Spider-Man animated series. Morbius was always a strange villain to me. He always seemed lost in a world of Kraven, the Hunter's and Hob Goblin's. In his own series he's written as a down on his luck sad sack. That's an interesting take on the one-time Midnight Son, but it sucks the momentum from the comic.
Hellraiser: The Dark Watch
Kirsty Cotton is now a Cenobite. She and her ilk are getting attacked by demons in the Labyrinth. This is not an ideal situation for anyone, because if Leviathan (the master of hell) comes under attack, it could undo all of this hell and unleash a brand new one. Harry, another cenobite (the cool one from the cover) has to get back to hell and help defeat the demons.
Bag it or board it up? Finally some Hellraiser comics that don't read like a list of names and things you don't care about. The comic's author, Brandon Seifert, is doing a good job of balancing the rich Hellraiser mythology with a story that's actually readable. Well done!
Lobster Johnson: A Scent of Lotus 2 of 2
Lobster Johnson continues his newest case in Chinatown. The gun wielding tough-as-nails 1930's detective from the world of Hellboy wants to find out who's been killing couriers in the neighborhood, and why. This leads him into the path of a Wu, a powerful witch/assassin and her hordes of evil monkey monsters.
Bag it or board it up? Well, there were evil monkey monsters, so that's pretty awesome. All in all this is a pretty tame finale for the two-parter. Shots are fired, a spell or two gets launched, and exposition gets heaped upon the reader. Eh, they can't all be gems.
Creepy No. 13
The revival of the old horror series Creepy really hits its stride with Dark Horse. This week, to celebrate the 13th issue, Creepy has all types of awesome mini-comics. One story follows a girl who's family has been hiding dark secrets from her. Another shows what happens when you take that strange, special subway car. And especially of note, a reprinted classic comic featuring a Bram Stoker story.
Bag it or board it up? This is, by far, my pick of the week. I'm normally just so-so on these reprints of old horror comics, but this issue hit it out of the park. The new stories were great, I'd never read the reprint before, even the comical buffer comics in between stories were great. This is just good old-fashioned spooky fun. Check it out.