“When Philadelphia police officer Greg Hettinger stepped into the middle of a gunfight, hot lead shredded his face—and he pulled the trigger, blind. Now Greg is waking up in a world where he’s a killer, hopelessly scarred and hooked on painkillers. What does a man do when he can no longer face the world, yet still wants to do good? He puts on a hood…” -Dark Circle press release.

WRITTEN BY: Duane Swierczynski

ART BY: Michael Gaydos

PUBLISHER: Dark Circle Comics

PRICE: $3.99

RELEASE: February 25, 2015

On the 25^th of this month, Archie Comics’ Red Circle imprint relaunches as the aptly named Dark Circle Comics. Dark Circle will kick off with “The Black Hood” in a completely new incarnation, a darker, crime/noir incarnation written by Duane Swierczynski; comic, fiction, and nonfiction author. Archie has nailed the dark side of comics to the wall with “The Black Hood” more so than they already have with titles like “Afterlife with Archie” and “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.”

When Officer Greg Hettinger is severely injured in the line of duty he has three choices: 1.) heal, rehabilitate, and go back to work, 2.) wallow in self-pity and pain, living life pill to pill, or 3.) seek justice in an unconventional manner, becoming an antihero, giving him the option to essentially do both good by his city and live in self-pity and pain. So he dons a black executioner’s mask and embraces his inner darkness only to use it for good.

The decision to bring Swierczynski onto this title deserves 5 skulls alone. Swierczynski is known in the prose world for his noir/mystery/crime fiction, which he integrates flawlessly into “The Black Hood” to bring us a whole different kind of comic. The kind that makes you exceedingly sorrowful before it slowly dips you into a vat of white-hot emotions bordering on retribution and a self-righteous/holy desire to kick some serious ass. All of this done in a clipped noir writing style that feeds into the reader’s desire for vengeance.

Within one issue, Swierczynski manages to make his audience care deeply for Hettinger, a simple man with a killer smile. An honest, hard working cop who just wants to do his best. Then Swierczynski rips that away from the reader only to flip the coin and land it on the shadowy side of good. The range of emotions produced by this comic is astounding.

Michael Gaydos and Kelly Fitzpatrick perfectly match the tone of Swierczynski’s writing with deeply expressive and visceral imagery in hues of dark blue, dirty green, and neutral browns. The inking, when not extremely heavy and all-consuming (absolutely fitting for the tenor of the comic), is done in a gritty sketch-like fashion, again, perfectly matching what Swierczynski has set up. This is a team of creators who understand what it takes to evoke sorrow, pity, anger, compassion, and ultimately fist-clenching victory from an audience.

You’ll want to add this to your pull list. In fact, call your local comic shop today and make sure they order this comic. Because if you thought you were blown away by Archie’s dark turn with “Afterlife” you haven’t seen anything yet. *Note: be sure to check out the abundance of phenomenal variant covers for “The Black Hood” #1.