Comics
Review: ‘Witch Doctor: Mal Practice’ #5
Just before its penultimate conclusion, Witch Doctor: Mal Practice #5 delivers a fantastic read filled with monsters, black magic, and femme fatales. As always with the “Witch Doctor” series, readers will find tons of hilarious one-liners, surprising twists, and nonstop action. You’re missing out on all the bloody fun if you’re not reading this comic.
WRITTEN BY: Brandon Seifert
ART BY: Lukas Ketner
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: March 27, 2013
After a one-night stand, Dr. Vincent Morrow found himself under a deadly supernatural attack. With the clock ticking, Dr. Morrow has to stop the killer virus from invading his internal organs. Though he has Eric and Penny by his side, Morrow doubts will actually find the cure to save him. Dr. Morrow’s mysterious enemies want something he has in his collection. In order to make this deal happen, Dr. Morrow has to save Penny, who is being held hostage by his enemies. But with his heartbeat beginning to fade, will Dr. Morrow be able to save himself and Penny from death?
Brandon Seifert’s cleverly crafts two adventures into one issue. First, Seifert has Dr. Morrow entering his body system, which is an homage to the sci-fi film, Fantastic Voyage. Instead of white blood cells, we have dragon-like parasites attacking from the inside. In order to save himself from the demonic parasite, Dr. Morrow has to increase the voltage of the defibrillator on himself. Whatever is happening in the outside world is also hurting Dr. Morrow on the inside.
Elsewhere, Eric is planning a rescue mission for the kidnapped Penny. Morrow’s enemies are using a crack house as their hideout. Because Morrow’s enemies are injecting junkies with black magic, Siefert makes an interesting metaphor for drugs. The junkies have no idea they are taking a substance that will eventually turn them into demons.
Artist Lukas Ketner is just having fun when he illustrates Eric as the action hero. Feeling confident and tough, Eric has no problem carrying Dr. Morrow’s sword as if it were his own. When Dr. Morrow storms into the crack house, Eric has his finger ready to pull the trigger. This goes back to the first issue, when Eric remembers in a flashback of his military training. Eric knows how to enter a room stealthily and strategize an attack.
In the last splash page, Ketner depicts what happens when the drugs start to kick in. With their eyes glowing red, the junkies twist their bodies like spiders and are walking backwards. Some of them are floating above the floor or crawling on the ceiling. Because the drugs are changing their internal organs, the junkies are vomiting tiny monsters.
With just one issue away from its conclusion, “Witch Doctor: Mal Practice” #5 keeps adding the action, humor, and suspense. The “Witch Doctor” series remains a constant fun and entertaining read. I can’t wait to see how this story arc ends.
4/5 – Skulls
Reviewed by – Jorge Solis
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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