Comics
Review: ‘Hellraiser Annual’ #1
In a single year, Clive Barker has managed to accomplish what may have been impossible for others. He, along with co-writer Mark Miller, has salvaged a formerly dying franchise and resuscitated it completely, taking it even beyond its former glory. Barker has taken us on an excursion, from the four corners of the earth to the hottest pits of Hell, where an intense battle between the two worlds presses on, with only a select few able to regain the balance.
WRITTEN BY: Clive Barker, Mark Miller, and Brandon Seifert
ART BY: Janusz Ordon
PUBLISHER: BOOM!
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: Out Now
This issue of Hellraiser opens with a familiar character, traipsing through a bloody valley in Hell. As the fires beat down on his already festered, weary skin, he begs for the light. A second chance, salvation, anything. Because God “has” to hear, right? Well, as it turns out, it’s not quite God that hears him, but not quite man, either. Captain Elliot Spencer stands there, looking down at him. He offers this pivotal character a deal: help him to fight Kirsty, the new Head Cenobite, in Hell.
Meanwhile, his human team, Tiffany and Theo, are still struggling to destroy all of the puzzle boxes and their worshippers. Spencer informs them that even if the boxes are destroyed, there’s still a way that the Cenobites’ demons can come back, and through this method, Hell can never be truly defeated.
This issue is broken up into two episodes: “Closer to God,” and “My Enemy’s Enemy.” “Closer” focuses on Hell, full of grotesque, decaying bodies and a blood-stained landscape. Jesus Hervas really mastered the human form in this installment; the different body types used in the Hell scenes are varied and real. “My Enemy’s Enemy,” illustrated by Michael Montenat and written by Brandon Seifert (of “Witch Doctor”), is definitely darker, with more black to contrast the neutral colors. However, an element that’s remained consistent throughout not only this issue, but the entire series, is that startling shade of red that never fails to give me chills.
I know that this probably goes without saying, but “Hellraiser: Annual” marks a fantastic year for this series. Clive Barker and Mark Miller have consistently delivered an intricate and engaging story that propels us between worlds with the characters. We have not just followed Kirsty’s and Pinhead’s transformations; we, as fans, have evolved with them. We’ve been placed into these new depths of Hell and Earth alongside them, experiencing their fears, and feeling their pain. After the years of lost mythology and skewed plots, the sinking ship that was once the Hellraiser franchise is now navigating calmer waters, smooth sailing.
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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