Well I don’t think it was a big surprise who the reveal character was last issue, but I want to wait till now to say that Aaron Boone has finally come into Nightbreed! Even without him the story has been highly entertaining, now that we have our main man; the story can only go bigger. If you haven’t joined in the fun yet it is about time. Plus I recently found out that Nightbreed is getting turned into a TV series, so my hope is that the comic and series can go hand in hand. Clive Barker has approved the series, so the two will have to be similar and be a lot of fun. The comic has done the same thing every issue, Boone is getting introduced to Midian while this archetypal old man explains the layout the place. We then suddenly always flashback to different time periods and get introduced to the monsters. I love this way of storytelling. The old man never really goes into the story either, he is always just saying something wise with the story playing in the background. I am wondering if Boone is even hearing the story, but for some reason it makes me think that he is. Although, like most readers, I am interesting in the here and now, hearing all the back stories is what is going to the here and now even more sweet. Knowing who are characters are, what they have been through, and foreshadowing what makes them tick is all part of getting a group together. Marc Andreyko is taking his time to make everything fall in place for this comic, and I can appreciate his delicacy with each monster.
Piotr Kowalski puts it all together with his art. The balance between monster and human is perfect. You don’t want these guys too scary or else the reader would fear them too, but you don’t want them too human because the story wouldn’t make sense. Giving them the balance of both allows for us to understand both sides. And even more so, sometimes the humans are scariest creatures alive, so adding that dark element allows for both sides to drift.
Here we follow two monsters. One woman from 1478 being chased by God’s good men into a cave to be killed. The other character is a young man in 1968 who faces his own demons while being a man of God trying to stop evil in the world. And we all know the 60s was full of ‘em. Each character is dealing with their struggles but with only getting small glimpses of each, we only know so much. I think more readers will gravitate towards the young man because more is done with his story. You are interested to see where this is going because you can’t tell if he is a monster or just evil. The women on the other hand is a monster and it is only until the end that the men see some value out of her. We really don’t know the fate either, but that makes it all the more intriguing.
Nightbreed has such a compelling story, you can’t help but hooked first go around. Each month brings on new monsters that will devour the reader with their tales of sadness. You can’t help but hope that Midian will finally bring peace for some and that Boone will lead the way.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Marc Andreyko Artist: Piotr Kowalski Publisher: Boom Studios Price: $3.99 Release Date: 7/30/14 Format: Ongoing, Print/Digital