DC Horror Presents #3 – Francesco Francavilla, Patrick Horvath, Writer/Artists
Ray – 9/10
Ray: This series has been a solid read so far, but it hasn’t blown me away. That might change with this issue, which features one-man stories by two of the best horror cartoonists in the industry.
First up is “The Cthonian Dawn” by Francesco Francavilla, which is a Batman story that finds the Caped Crusader buried alive. A flashback reveals how he investigated a mysterious attack at an abandoned botanical garden, only to find corpses aplenty and some disturbing visuals straight out of Clive Barker. Much of this story deals with body horror related to plants, but this isn’t a Poison Ivy story. Its roots instead go back to Vertigo, with an unexpected villain that still makes perfect sense. The story here is a little quicker than I expected, with many pages not having much dialogue, but it excels with stark creepy visuals and the details in Francavilla’s art is always stunning. This is also the most clearly out-of-continuity story we’ve had yet from this book.
Next up is “The Brooding Public”, an Adam Strange story by Patrick Horvath, the up-and-coming star behind the cozy mystery/horror “Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees”. It finds Adam preparing to depart his bucolic part-time homeworld of Rann, only for Sardath to warn him about the purple spores on his boots – something that could be deadly if it was spread to the wrong world. The problem is…this isn’t the first time he’s jumped back, and it’s already too late for Earth. What ensues is one of the most disturbing depictions of body horror and alien biologies I’ve ever seen in a comic, complete with Horvath’s distinctive cartoony and colorful art that somehow makes everything even more bizarre. I’m going to be flashing back to this comic every time I have a headache from now on, so thanks. I’m not sure either of these stories quite delivered the creator at their peak, but that’s just a risk of ten-page stories.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
