A solid installment worth-reading, “Clive Barker’s Nightbreed” #6 will surprise readers with its twisted sense of dark humor. Based on Clive Barker’s “Cabal” novella, this spinoff explores the underground inhabitants living in the secluded city of Midian. Not only is the series exploring new territory within the “Nightbreed” mythology, it is also creating a surreal world readers must visit.
WRITTEN BY: Clive Barker and Marc Andreyko
ART BY: Piotr Kowalski, Emmanuel Xerx Javier
PUBLISHER: BOOM! Studios
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: October 22, 2014
Reviewed By Jorge Solis
Aaron Boone is about to meet two interesting characters living in Midian. Lude and Annastasjia are sharing origin stories in a competitive game to “out-tragedy” each other.” Abandoned by his mother, the demon-looking Lude has lived a lonely life as an orphan. The Hollywood starlet Annastasjia has not aged a bit since the ’20s because she has someone else’s head living beside her. Though they have diverse backgrounds, with special circumstances, Boone is about to learn how all roads eventually lead to Midian.
Barker and co-writer Marc Andreyko keep the narrative entertaining through their witty sense of comedic timing. The writing duo delivers some laugh-out-loud humor through Lude in his coming-of-age tale. Though Lude has the face of a demon, he is really an orphan wanting the answer to why his mother abandoned him. This is about whether an unwanted child should forgive their parent for not being there.
At its best, Andreyko’s storytelling knows when to split and connect the two origin stories through their themes. Abandoned by the limelight, Annastasjia wants to strike back at Hollywood for forgetting about her. When revenge leads to nowhere, Annastasjia is able to find a home for herself, along with people who accept her, at a carnival freakshow.
Artist Piotr Kowalski Javier hits at the right expressions throughout Lude’s emotional arc. Though he is supposed to be the comic relief, Lude is really using the humor as a self-defense mechanism. Whenever the panels hit their dramatic points, Lude is then drawn cartoonishly, as if he’s avoiding the seriousness.
Emmanuel Xerx Javier captures a violent slasher tale with Annastasjia’s origin story. In her revenge plan, Annastasjia cuts off a man’s head and throws the decapitated piece in front of a moving car. We get to see all the blood when she slits the throat of the doctor who ruined her life.
“Clive Barker’s Nightbreed” #6 has crafted two interesting protagonists that should become fan-favorites. Just reading the “Nightbreed” comic makes me want to preorder “The Cabal Cut.”