Weekly Comic Book Review

by Robert Kirkman (writer), Ryan Ottley (Pencils)

You know what’s cool? Robert Kirkman. You know what’s not cool? Taking two characters you’ve created, mashing them together, and calling it “new.” You know what’s just ugly? Not even doing the pencils on the new thing you’ve “created” but claiming top billing anyway. In other words, F-You Todd McFarlane.  Just pony up and suck the blue cock of doom you has been. Because Haunt could have really been something awesome if it weren’t for the fact that it’s a blatant mash-up of Spawn and Venom. And you know what? Since it basically is Venom, it could have made a really good Marvel Knights or Max series. Venom binds to a wayward priest seeking to avenge his brother? This entire plot could have been done with the symbiote— you know, since it already was.

So before I go all Lewis Black on this, I think it’s best for everyone if I pull back a little bit and break this down ignoring Spenom, or Vawn—however you want it. I find myself really liking this despite how angry the superpower concept makes me. A big reason—and maybe the only reason—why this is still enjoyable is Robert Kirkman’s story. The Venom aspect really didn’t interfere with the story. In fact, it proves even further that there was room for something actually new instead of the same symbiotic goo suit we’ve already seen.  Haunt, above anything else, is about two estranged brothers forced to reconcile and violently impale wrongdoers as they do. There’s Daniel and Kurt. Daniel is a priest who hates his life and sleeps with the same prostitute three times a week like clockwork. In fact, the first panel is the prostitute he frequents. Kurt is the saint of the two. Loving husband and special agent who saves his victims and brings justice to the people who do great evil. He’s Captain America holding a baby running through a minefield. And halfway through the first issue, he’s dead. But his soul becomes tethered to Daniel, his brother, and we begin to learn about their relationship. Kurt stole Daniel’s girl and then married her. Not a very brotherly thing to do. Oh, and about Kurt being a saint…well, turns out that he cheated on his wife—the girl of Daniel’s heart—numerous times and was going to scam the government and run away with some broad. Kirkman’s character play is amazing. He seesaws the likability of his character John McCain does with his principles. The more you read the more you’re just not sure what to make of Kurt or Daniel. At first Daniel is a punk, but by the end he’s got much more of a soul than Kurt—after all, Daniel must have decided to become a priest for a reason. Truly, forgetting the Vawn issue, this is an incredible story.

And really, the art is quite impressive in this too. Ryan Ottley’s pencils are perfect for this story, where everyone’s a very defined character and yet a little sketchy at the same time. Going back to that first page, we have the prostitute who is very cleanly drawn, perfect lines for perfect—eyes (what did you think I was going to say?). And then we have Daniel. Rough lines, very sketched looking. I really love the bottom of this page, contrasting the girl’s lips, refined and sculpted and bright, contrasted with Daniel’s eye, heavily sketched and shadowed. Also, the more we find out about Kurt, the less refined he looks. When we’re introduced to him he’s the perfect square-jawed American, bright as the prostitutes’ lips. But as we find out more about him, he’s less defined and more sketched. Daniel takes the opposite approach. As he begins to discover more about his brother, it solidifies him more as a person (even if he’s pissed off) and we get—literally—a clearer picture. The colorist in this, Fco Plascencia (raise your hand if you accidentally read “placenta”) also deserves a lot of credit for helping to build this amorphous/ambiguous character spectrum with Ottley and Kirkman. Maybe Marvel will ask Ottley to draw some Venom stuff since, you know, he’s doing such an awesome job at it anyway.

Now can I go back to ranting? I gave you like 600 words of normal review, going into what was really good about this graphic novel, I think I’ve earned the right to rant just a little bit more. I’ll be honest. I nearly just tossed this aside. I love Kirkman but the Venom thing, just on the cover, was already pissing me off too much. If it wasn’t for the $9.99 price tag, I would have never read it. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt and it was a good story, but when the superpower was introduced the first time, I lost all interest and had to put it down for a little while. And then I read from the beginning again and made it all the way through. By the end of the first full reading, I decided to ignore the superpower stuff and just focus on the characters and plot. It could have been a gun slinging  ghost thing. Chainsaw for a dick. Something else. Anything else. But what the hell? Why did they just rehash all things Venom. Venom the gooey ghost. That’s the best McFarlane could come up with? And what did he really contribute to this series? He didn’t give any pencils, no colors. Inks. He traced Ottley’s work. One of the most acclaimed artists of our time and the most he could contribute was inks? It just—my hands spasm with anger as I think about it. I really feel like I’m becoming the Lewis Black of the comic reviews when I think about it. And it pisses me off even more because it was so good. Kirkman and Ottley were so good that it just makes the Spenom even more of a burden. It’s so original in everything except for the superpower that it just makes it stand out that much more. The only difference is that this symbiote is a ghost and not an alien.  Or, at the bookstore I work at when I’m not teaching, you move from the paranormal shelf to the aliens/UFO shelf one down. Yep, big difference.

Alas, I will continue the series because Kirkman’s story is that good. But I will always keep a special place in my heart for how much I hate the lack of originality in the powers given to the wayward priest.

Final Grade….eh…B- (A’s for art and story, D for Spenom)

-Roman Colombo

Filed under: Image Comics, The Graphic Novel Reader Tagged: | Comic Book Reviews, Fco Plascencia, Greg Capullo, Haunt, Haunt Vol 1 review, Haunt Vol.1, Robert Kirkman, Roman Colombo, Ryan Ottley, Spawn, Todd McFarlane, Venom, weekly comic ook review