Dead
Image and Robert Kirkman have come to be two names in comics I can trust to bring awesome comics. Their latest series, Haunt, is no exception to this. Created by Kirkman and Image co-founder Todd McFarlane, Haunt probably one of my favorite comic series.
The series starts with Kurt Kilgore confessing his sins to Daniel, his brother and a priest with a taste for hookers. Shortly after Kurt leaves for his job. You see, Kurt is a secret agent. He is on a mission to acquire a doctor and his research from a hostile nation. Upon seeing the results of the doctor’s experiments, he abandons the mission to save the test subjects, leaving the research behind. When he gets back to the states Kurt is killed by a group that also wants the research and thinks he has it. When he refuses to give them what he doesn’t have he is killed. At his funeral Daniel starts to see Kurt’s ghost who starts telling about his last mission. When men from the rival group come knocking again Kurt accidentally pushes himself into Daniel. Upon doing this an ectoplasmic suit forms around Daniel giving him sharp claws, ectoplasm tentacles, enhanced reflexes and Kurt has limited control. Daniel is then pulled into Kurt’s world of espionage, learning how his new abilities work along the way.
Kirkman’s writing is top notch as always. The story and characters are really interesting. Daniel and Kurt, the main character have a nice dynamic. At the beginning Daniel has nothing but fucking hatred for the guy. (SPOILERS PROBABLY START NOW) Kurt took the love of his life, lays on him all the murder stuff he has done on him and now a bunch of people want Daniel dead because of Kurt. But as the story progresses Daniel kind of starts to change his attitude toward Kurt. Kurt throughout the series has been nothing but worried for Daniel. As Daniel uses the suit more and more his body starts to feel the ware. A couple of times it has almost killed Daniel and doesn’t want to be responsible for his brother’s death.
As I said above when Kurt goes into Daniel they become Haunt. With his sharp claws he can walk along walls, he has the tentacles that let him swing on walls and create traps for people, he is much more agile and stronger than he used to be as well. Now, if you haven’t made the connection, Haunt sounds kind of like a messed up Spider-Man. The really big differences between them is their origin and the fact that Haunt straight up murders people. No wit, no banter, just murder. There has also been some hints as to what Haunt may actually be. When Daniel first enters the company stronghold and is arrested, one of the people the Kurt saved could see him. She is the first one to refer to the brothers as “Haunt.” She also drew the symbol that appears on Haunt’s chest on her cell wall and on the floor in front of Dan and Kurt. I really hope Kirkman flushes out this angle as the series progresses.
Apart from Haunt only two other characters kind of interested me. The first being Cobra. He first shows up in issue 2 attempting to kill Haunt. He is this badass motherfucker with knives and guns who has been able to do the most damage to Haunt to date. His image vastly changes over the course of the first ten issues. He starts out looking relatively normal except for his Mike Tyson looking face tattoo but after a fight with Haunt his face is collapsed in half, all of his hair is gone, the teeth he has left are like fangs but he still has that ta moko ink that I am sure pissed off quite a few people. In the more recent issues he is shown with a girlfriend (who’s name escapes me) but she hasn’t really done much for me. She just kind of degrades Cobra about his looks and then fucks him.
Mr. Hurg, the seemingly main baddy of the series, is the only other interesting character for me. Looking at another Image series, he reminds me of a cross between Kenneth Irons from Witchblade and Mason Savoy from Chew. Right now we don’t know much about him, much like Mr. Irons at the beginning of Witchblade. He is the head of the rival that wanted the doctor’s research notes from Kurt. What he wants them for, you will just have to read it and find out.
The art style is very good in this comic. The art is done by Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo, Ryan Ottley, FCO Plascencia and Johnathan Glapion at different points through the series. Everything with Haunt killing people is very visceral and slimy and so awesome! The look of the characters is fantastic as well, especially Haunt and Cobra. The shading lines on all the characters make it look kind of realistic.
Haunt is just a fantastic series. It has really interesting characters even if they are kind of copies of other characters. The story is classic Kirkman with interesting plot devices and very, very violent. The art style really shows off the detail on the characters as well the bloody ridiculousness of the bloody ridiculous. Anyone who likes anything by Kirkman or Kirkman-esque, pick up these comics.
Final Score: 4.5/5
– DeadMan
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