Comics
[Comic Review] “Cluster” #3 Fails To Keep It’s Hold
“Cluster” #3 introduces an element of political thriller into the series as the renegade team’s captor drop a truth bomb on them implicating all of humanity in hostile takeover of an alien planet. There are themes of expansionism, energy conservation, ecology, and even race being brought to the surface of this once simple sci fi tale. Once again we are brought back to the fateful drunk driving accident in one of the most out of place background narratives I’ve ever experienced. “Cluster” is evolving, but I’m not sure if its for me.
WRITTEN BY: Ed Brisson
ART BY: Damian Couciero
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: April 1, 2015
I was immediately taken with “Cluster’s” imaginative setting and novel premise, but as we get deeper into the world I finding it all to be a bit dense and somewhat disengaging. Once again we flash back to the source of Samara’s guilt:the drunk driving incident that led to the death of her sister, and so far we have seen absolutely nothing that wasn’t implicit in the very idea of a drunk driving incident: she was drunk at a party, she drove home with her sister, she is in the hospital and her father is yelling at her for being irresponsible. I doesn’t deliver any kind of new information one couldn’t have assumed, and it is exceptionally dark subject matter for this book.
In this the most dialogue heavy issue so far, the captor explains that the aliens on the planet or not hostile life forms trying to take over the planet but are in fact the natives being suffocated by the terraforming being done by the humans. He tells Samara if she can get her dad to bankroll an uprising that he will take the ticking time bombs off her squad. This arrangement is agreed upon shortly before a big robot shootout, which is cool, but I’m struggling to get invested in this story changes directions every issue and doesn’t have any characters that I care to follow. It isn’t a mess, it just doesn’t have any strong appeal.
I’m not sure what “Cluster” could do to hook me at this point, I was really into issue #1 because it was succinct and fresh and established an immediate conflict. Now the book only tread familiar intergalactic ground with a rag tag team that isn’t all that interesting. There is a twist I suppose, but it doesn’t have much impact because we don’t know much about the characters yet. I hope things start to come together, but as each issue comes out its getting harder to recommend “Cluster.”
Comics
‘You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive’ – IDW Dark’s Next Horror Comic Will Make You Question Reality
Five friends. Four houses. One perfect life. Bloody Disgusting is excited to exclusively announce You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive, a brand new horror comic from IDW Dark.
From Eisner-Nominated writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, and rising horror artist Heather Vaughan, You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is described as a “paranoia-laced, socially-conscious, horror mystery that will leave you questioning reality, and reveal that this crafted world is more of a nightmare than the idealistic dream they were expecting.”
Phoebe Joplin has never questioned the world her parents built: a secluded community where she and her friends were raised to be smarter, stronger, and better than anyone else. No distractions. No dangers. No secrets. Until the night of their graduation.
When one of them dies under impossible circumstances, Phee starts to pull at the edges of her perfect life—and what she finds is something far more terrifying than she ever imagined.
Because this place isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a cage. And no one who discovers the truth ever leaves it alive.
Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (Batman – One Bad Day: Clayface, Star Trek: The Last Starship) co-write the upcoming IDW Dark horror comic, featuring art by Heather Vaughan.
Jackson Lanzing said in a statement to Bloody Disgusting, “You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is in many ways a spiritual successor to our last creator-owned horror, The Principles of Necromancy – a dive into the promise and consequence of playing god with the blood of innocents. But the Hivemind book this reminds me of most is Clayface: One Bad Day. This is a deeply human story with intensely raw emotions – five best friends and their five mysterious parents, tearing one another apart for the promise of some impossible glory that’s waiting just beyond their darkest actions. We’re thrilled to be bringing this story to life with our long-time partner in crime, editor Heather Antos, at IDW Dark – and we’re particularly excited to give our Clayface fans a new, brutal and emotional horror made just for them.”
Adds Collin Kelly, “We’re deconstructing a feeling that seems universal these days; our elders have a death grip on their power, without any intention of giving it up to the generations that come next. YNLTPA is about growing up with the limitless potential of the future… and realizing how much it’s a lie we’ve been fed to keep us under the yoke of the past. Bringing this brutal experience to life is our artist and co-creator, Heather Vaughan, who brings an incredible amount of humanity to our cast. But it’s in our youthful leads that Heather’s art really shines – you are going to fall in love with these young people, even as they go through the worst experience of their lives. What we’ve all crafted together is going to be tragic, painful, but above all else, sincere – with a future so uncertain, there’s only one thing we can trust: you’ll never leave this place alive.”
“Some horror stories are about monsters in the dark. YNLTPA is about realizing the monsters raised you,” previews Senior Group Editor Heather Antos. “Working with Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly on this series has been a dream in the darkest possible way. They’ve built a story that’s layered, brutal, and deeply emotional, and every issue gives artist Heather Vaughan opportunities to push the art into places that feel both haunting and deeply personal. Some horror comics will keep you up at night…this is one that will stick with you for years to come.”
The first issue of You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive goes on sale October 14, 2026! Make sure to pre-order at your local comic shop by September to guarantee a copy.
Exclusively check out the various covers for Issue #1 down below.
IDW Publishing’s horror imprint IDW DARK features comics like A Quiet Place: Storm Warning, Smile: For the Camera, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, The Twilight Zone, Event Horizon: Dark Descent & Event Horizon: Inferno, and more.
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