By: Joe Casey (writer), Nathan Fox (art), Ivan Plascencia (colors), Comicraft (letters)
The Story: The Kilgore brothers finish their fight in the Saint Matthew Church.
A few things: 1). What just happened? – I know that delays are part of comics, but it does harm the story if you’re a single issue reader and there are such gaps between issues. As I sat down to write this review, I realized that much of what happened in this issue was a blur from a “story” standpoint. Then I checked to see when I’d reviewed Haunt #23 and saw that it was back in mid-April. That’s almost 3 months on a story arc (that was a big departure from the Kirkman/Capullo Haunt)…..probably not a great idea. At this point, it’s just down to seeing events and reacting to them and any deeper meaning has been lost. The Kilgore brothers fought some flame demon in the church where Daniel used to work. I think that Daniel always assumed that this was the Catholic church, but it was actually something much more sinister. And they have a new hippie/samurai buddy named Tubman. And….they beat the flame demon, but the Haunt got somehow mixed up with the demon (?).
I hate complaining about delays in comics, but they really do squish the story. Of course, “waiting for the trade” is an option for some, but that’s not how I (personally) like to consume my comics.
2). Visceral art, but… – There’s good and bad in the art this issue. The good part is that I love visceral art and Nathan Fox has that part nailed. His characters all bristle with energy. I’ll take that as a baseline for an artist any day and I love watching Fox’s Haunt leaping around. Now, the bad news is that the storytelling wasn’t that clear in this issue. Some of that is no big deal. I personally like to see fight scenes where you can tell what punches are being thrown and attempt to copy them while looking in the mirror. Some artists (Fox, I think) like to draw fights as a big furball of action and ink. That’s fine….different strokes. Also, color related, given that Fox is being generous with the ink, I wouldn’t mind seeing what these scenes look like with more straight-forward colors. The coloring that Plascencia is doing is visually appealing, but it is adding to the riot of art on the page. Maybe the color could help ground the inks???
3). Looking forward to next issue. – From the way this issue ended – with a certain lab technician from the Kirkman/Capullo Haunt showing up – and the teaser for next issue (return of Mirage), it seems we’ll be delving back into some old Haunt stories. I DO like the new, crazy-church that Casey and Fox have introduced, but there are a lot of plotlines from the first 18 issues that just kinda got dumped. It’ll be nice to revisit those. Plus…..Fox drawing Mirage?!?! That’ll be off-the-chain nuts! I’ve wanted to buy a page of Fox’s art and I might just find that page next month.
Conclusion: Some good elements, but the delay has kinda killed the story momentum. Still, the series has enough built-up good will and the creators are talented enough that this series deserves some flexibility.
Grade: B-
– Dean Stell
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