DC Horror Presents… #2 – Latoya Morgan, Aaron Sagers, Writer; Tom Derenick/Walt Barna, Ryan Kelly, Artists; Nick Filardi, Dee Cunniffe, Colorists
Ray – 8/10
Ray: This offbeat new horror series once again takes us to the darkest corners of the DCU – this time focusing on Bat-villains. In the first story, “Living Doll”, Morgan and Derenick follow a pair of teenage sweethearts who are spending their Halloween dressed as Batman and Wonder Girl – and celebrating with a little break-in. They illegally enter a set of her favorite movie and root around the props – only to discover Scarface, who wastes no time hacking the boy to death. But as for the girl, he may have other plans – and she might be okay with that. This is a dark and spooky tale, but it does ask some odd questions about exactly who Scarface is and who’s pulling his strings. That might just be baked in with the character right now, but this also feels like it’s sort of treading on Chucky territory, making Scarface less of a manifestation of Wesker’s madness and more a supernatural being.
The second story, “Superstitious Lot” by Sagers and Kelly, focuses on Penguin. Cobblepot has called in Tennyson Stacks, an offbeat ghost-hunter, to investigate a possible haunting at the Iceberg Lounge. Stacks’ casual manner doesn’t go over well with Cobblepot, and Stacks sets up an apparatus to drag the phantoms out of their hiding place. Well, Penguin has made himself quite a lot of enemies over the years, so it’s no surprise that many of them have hung around to carry out their grudges. The fun part is that Stacks isn’t exactly there to do what you think he is – he’s actually working for someone else entirely, and is dealing out some very satisfying karmic justice. Most of the stories in this book so far are just pretty generic jump-scare tales, but this one is far more effective with very little gore. It reminds me a bit of a Victorian ghost story, and I’m hoping to see more of this new character in other books.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
