The Tomb

Written by Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis
Art by Christopher Mitten

This is an exciting story about love, greed, and the infamous 'curse' Howard Carter discovered in opening King Tut's tomb.

Weir and DeFilippis write this story about Jessica Parrish, an archeologist in the Indiana Jones/Lara Croft vein, who has been discredited after her efforts to stop looters in Iraq backfire. She is contacted by a senator to explore a mysterious house that had belonged to Mathias Fowler, another archeologist who had been present at Carter's dig and who looted that tomb of powerful mystical objects. Along with Parrish is a rather large group of people (in true horror story fashion, the group starts shrinking pretty quickly), including a reporter who has fallen from grace and now writes for a tabloid.

The story quickly falls into conventional haunted-house tropes, but is rescued from total cliche by the strength of the characters involved. Both Parrish and Kelleher, the reporter, are joined by former lovers, adding a more adult dimension to the story, as they are forced to face their own obstinancy and obsession with their jobs.

Mitten's art here is quite different from his work on Wasteland. It's much cleaner, and the action is easier to follow, but his characters tend to all look the same, but for their clothing and hair. At times, I had to check to figure out who was speaking.

This is a good read, but I feel that Oni missed its target audience by including some swearing and rating it 16+ - I think this book would appeal much more to younger teens.