Haunt Vol. 1

Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Greg Capullo, Ryan Ottley, and Todd McFarlane

I never had any desire to read Haunt.  Sure, Robert Kirkman was involved, as was his Invincible collaborator Ryan Ottley, but the fact that this was a Todd McFarlane-driven project left a cold taste in my mouth.  Even after I began reading his Sam and Twitch issues, and was surprised that they were actually decent, I saw this series as a 90s throwback that held nothing for me.

Then, it was announced that Joe Casey and Nathan Fox would take over the comic, and my interest was piqued.  Casey is an imaginative writer who loves to mess with the sacred cows of established comics characters, and Nathan Fox is in the select company of artists frenetic and crazy enough to keep up with him.  The thing is, their debut issue (#19) did not do a single thing to explain the series to new readers, and that gave me enough of an impetus to read the first volumeof the series, to get a better sense of things.

And, for the most part, I learned that my earlier caution was highly justified.  This is not a very good comic, unfortunately.  There are kernels of a good comic, but the whole thing groans under the weight of what McFarlane and Kirkman are trying to do.

Kurt Kilgore is a super-agent for some secretive government agency that does secret government agency stuff (there's no need to really explain this stuff, because comics readers know about this kind of thing).  He is abducted, interrogated, and killed after botching a mission that involves some Dr. Mengele type German in South America.  People are looking for a notebook that he left behind or lost.

His brother, Daniel, is a crappy priest who likes to visit a prostitute (always the same one).  Suddenly, he can speak to his dead brother, and they can merge their spirits so that he wears a superhero costume, and can shoot webby ectoplasm stuff that kind of looks like sperm.  Together, they help the secret government agency deal with the people who are now attacking them looking for that notebook.  Hear that creaking?  Me too - it's on almost every page.

What amazes me is that almost no one reacts to how strange this situation is, and there is no attempt to explain why Kurt isn't really dead.  Or where the jizz comes from.  We know where though - McFarlane wanted to do some Spider-Man stuff, and some spy stuff all at once.

I will say that the combination of Greg Capullo on layouts, with Ryan Ottley penciling, and then McFarlane inking (for this volume at least) is kind of a perfect storm of unfortunate art.  All of these artists are much better on their own (well, I'm not sure about McFarlane - he's kind of the weak link these days).  Ryan Ottley's work on Invincible has been brilliant from the jump, and looking at this here, I feel bad for ripping on Greg Capullo's work on Batman - it is so much better than this.

Anyway, I was never the audience for a comic like this.  Were it not for Casey and Fox coming aboard, this series would have remained off my radar.  I must commend McFarlane and Kirkman for letting these guys take over their character - it's leading to much better comics already.  Similar to what Rob Liefeld is doing with properties like Prophet and Glory, it is nice to see people with real indie cred get a chance at doing what they want with indie titles - especially when the original issues of those comics are so bland and uninspiring.

Case Files: Sam & Twitch #13: Cops & Robbers

Written by Steve Niles and Todd McFarlane
Art by Paul Lee

This issue had a nice little done-in-one inventory story written by Steve Niles and series creator Todd McFarlane.  Neither of these writers are people I'm usually too fond of (I have given Niles a ton of chances, but he always seems to come up short on executing some truly excellent concepts), but this story worked quite well.

Sam gets a mysterious phone call one day, and has to go to prison to see his brother, who we never knew he had.  It seems that, while Sam took the right path in life, his brother always ended up making the wrong choices, and landed himself in a lifetime of incarceration and trouble with the law.

This story, about the relationship of brothers and the guilt they carry for each other's failings has a number of flashbacks to childhood, and helps to develop Sam's character even further.  It's a good story, and it has the same terrific artwork as the last arc.

Sam and Twitch #20-26: The John Doe Affair

Written by Todd McFarlane
Art by Alex Maleev and Paul Lee

I didn't realize, when I first bought almost the entire run of this series (I had to hunt down the last three issues elsewhere) that this arc was written by Todd McFarlane, and not Brian Michael Bendis.  I probably wouldn't have bothered with them, as I've never been a fan of McFarlane's writing (like the rest of the world, I was caught up in his art circa Amazing Spider-Man, but was sick of it by the time the guest writers came on Spawn).

I'm glad I got these though;  they're actually pretty good.  Sam and Twitch get caught up in a bizarre case - a killer is videotaping himself abusing and killing his victims, and is sending the tapes too Sam.  This case quickly becomes a red ball, as City Hall gets involved, as does the FBI.  Suspicions are aroused when a young officer whose father has a lot of important political connections is assigned to the case, and more and more strange things happen, not the least of which is that Sam goes on a date.

McFarlane builds a creepy and suspenseful story, which ultimately doesn't live up to its promises.  The ending is done too quickly, and there is never a satisfying explanation as to why the killer, and his surprise accomplice, are doing what they are doing.  On the other hand, McFarlane did provide the one thing that I felt this book was lacking during Bendis's run, which is character development.  We get to know a lot more about Sam and Twitch with this story, as they both have to take a look at the relationships in their life (although Twitch's bit at the end feels tacked on and forced).

The art on most of this arc is by Maleev, and so it's terrific, and then Pat Lee was brought in to pinch hit (apparently there were delays of more than a year between issues because McFarlane is about as reliable as Rob Liefeld) on the concluding issues.  He did his best to be Maleev, but couldn't quite pull it off.

I have enjoyed my look through this series, and am now on the hunt for the follow-up title, Sam and Twitch: Casefiles, which was mostly written by Marc Andreyko.

Sam and Twitch #10-13: Witchcraft

Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Alberto Ponticelli, Jonathan Glapion, and Todd McFarlane

I'm really enjoying reading through this series from about ten years ago.  I like crime comics and the odd procedural television show, and this series is definitely scratching the itch that has been left by the cancellation of Gotham Central, the rareness of Criminal, and the lack of anything worth watching on television in this genre these days.

This arc has Sam and Twitch dealing with a killer who is targeting members of the Wiccan and pagan communities, and murdering them quite spectacularly (decapitations are just the start of it all).  The two detectives stumble their way through the investigation, with Sam being coldly mocking of the victims and their beliefs, and Twitch showing a little more sensitivity.

The standard Bendis 'hard-boiled' dialogue is put to good use, but I'm starting to notice just how little time and effort has been put into building up these characters.  They are essentially just stereotypes, who spout out sitcom-worthy rejoinders.

The art on this arc is by Alberto Ponticelli.  I was excited to see his name, as I've loved his recent work on The Unknown Soldier, but here he's working more in a Todd McFarlane house style that I didn't like all that much.  The last issue is his strongest.  These are enjoyable comics - I feel like I'm knocking them a bit, but the truth is that when I'm reading them, I'm totally into them, but as soon as they are finished, I find it hard to remember all the content.  I will say that Ashley Wood deserves some recognition for his consistency in producing boring, almost identical covers.