By Brandy Dykhuizen. Our Week In Review sums up our weekly comic book coverage while taking time for a new review or two before it’s all over. Did we miss your favorite books this week? Well. This is where you need to be.
Underwinter #3
Image Comics/$3.99
Written by Ray Fawkes.
Art Ray Fawkes.
Letters by Steve Wands.
BD: A twisted exploration into the power of music and desire, Underwinter follows a divergent path towards horror. Unable to resist paychecks of epic proportions, members of a classical quartet swallow their reservations to appease an oddly demanding client. Blindfolded, banned from improvising, and their apparel provided by foreign hands, they create the soundtrack for the mysterious proceedings of a wealthy patron’s monthly meetings.
Like a bow teases out unlikely sounds from an array of strings, the quartet’s involvement in their benefactor’s rituals slowly bends them to the will of a dark force. The third issue ends with plenty of unanswered questions, with Ray Fawkes’ unconventional art serving to underscore the mystery. Hair and body fluids wash over the pages in abstract, flowing watercolors, further obscuring any sort of linear plot. The result is a feeling of fantastic unease, throwing the reader off the scent just as things start coming together.
Fawkes tackles some pretty heady themes in Underwinter. Everyone has a price, I suppose, but it’s looking like maintaining control is the only way anyone will make it out of this book alive. Light and darkness exist in us all, but it’s up to us to strike the right chord in order to keep the balance in check.
This is one book that would be worth picking up for the art alone, but it just so happens the writing is every bit as fantastically disquieting as the images. Dive into Underwinter as soon as possible, but be warned, it may take a while to resurface.
9 out of 10
From earlier this week —
Advance Review: The splendid horror of ‘Winnebago Graveyard’ fit for the Devil itself
DC TV Overdrive — CASUAL WEDNESDAYS WITH DOOMROCKET
‘The Archies’ a high-energy ode to music and friendship
Preview: A feral beast is loosed upon the wilds of New Jersey in ‘TMNT Universe’ #11
‘Venom’ #150 a surprisingly risky return of a dusty anti-hero
What books did YOU read this week? We want to know! Tell us about those feelings of yours in the comments section below.
