With fresh eyes I came into Nailbiter, after missing issue #9, ready to give an unbiased view of the comic. I kept going back and forth with my regular reviews, so I feel like I needed a break. Nailbiter is a slow comic. I thought with all the questions they story was asking that the actual plot was moving somewhere. Now I see that with asking more questions that is about the only way the plot moves. We never get closer to the answers. It is painful to watch it unfold. Making a murder mystery is hard work and then making that story be drawn out will only lead to readers falling off one by one. This comic reminds me of a lot of television shows that I watch. The mystery never moves, it never grows, the suspicion dies, and the audience moves on. I don’t really know how to improve it, but I wish we had some suspects. Eliminating members of the town one by one, although could be boring, would at least move us in some direction.

Also having some tension between Crane and Finch or Finch and Warren or whoever. The characters seem flat. The only tension seems to be from Finch and that preacher. And honestly if someone was getting murdered in my town every day, I would be acting a like crazy like that preacher too. I think his motives although weird make some sense. Then I couldn’t believe that when the bus dropped over the cliff the lack of emotion we heard from Crane. “Right behind you.” How about…”Shit! Damn! Get in there before the water fills.” It all was too lackluster.

Even the art in this scene barely showed any tension on their faces. They literally have a serial killer in the making and they don’t do anything about it, but instead blame Buckaroo’s legal system. Umm… this is a point where I would take matters into my own hands, or just leave town and never come back.

I have also said repeatedly in my reviews how good Warren’s character is, but he always seems to be missing from the story. The comic is named after him, so I assumed he would be the main character and the main story line, but he is neither.

I truly feel bad giving this comic such a poor score. I want to like it so bad, but after coming back with fresh eyes, it is hard to see what the thrill is about. I’m not even a tad curious to who is behind Carroll’s death.

Score: 1/5

Writer: Joshua Williamson Artist: Mike Henderson Colorist: Adam Guzowski Publisher: Image Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 2/4/15 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital