This issue took me for a spin. I thought the comic would be based around Warren, the hated serial killer, and how he changes over time trying to find Carroll, our missing man. But the comic seems to be about a lot more. The town is our main character. The town holds some pretty deep secrets that Crane, Finch, Warren, and all the other crazy town people are dying to find out about, literally. I am getting ahead of myself though, let’s start from the top. The town is Buckaroo and for some crazy reason serial killers come out of this town way more than they should. It seems like everyone is related or was best friends with a serial killer. Warren survived the jury in his judgement day and is still alive. Of course the whole town wants him dead, but he is a typical psychopath and probably feeds off of this hype. Issue two left us with a murder where the fingers have seemingly been bitten off, an MO for Warren. As Finch and Crane, two detectives and our main characters, learn that Warren is innocent the town still wants him dead. Clearly the readers like Warren though. Sure he is a serial killer that got away, but we have that sympathy for him that can’t be explained. The rest of the town seems like the crazy ones.
Finch and Crane are kind of thrown together because Crane lives in the town, so she would be doing the investigating, but Finch is there to find his friend, Carroll. Carroll, obsessed with Buckaroo and the serial killers surrounding it, goes missing. No one knows where he went or if he is even still alive. Finch and Crane are slowly realizing that the more they hunt, the more they are digging their own graves. Warren seems to know nothing of Carroll even though these two met for lunch a lot. Carroll has taken some notes on the town that Finch will have to go through in order to help the case. We get some notes on Warren, but nothing telling yet. I can’t tell if Warren really doesn’t know anything about Carroll or not. We don’t really get any closer to finding the truth about this one either.
What does come about is a much larger story than I expected. Joshua Williamson gave us one thing with #1 and #2 with his story. Now I find myself intrigued with a more complex serial killer story. What is it about this town that is creating these monsters? As Finch and Crane come closer in the morgue to finding out who their mystery person was that got killed, someone is stalking them. The way these pages are laid out for the reader is terrifying. I literally was on edge with each panel. Williamson has given us a town of killers and the “who done it” aspect is greater than I thought. I can’t tell if there is a whole ring of crazy people running around, if it is just one man who has come back from the dead, or if the town is somehow protecting itself from intruders of its secrets. That is why the mystery behind this comic is so much to play around with. It is really a blast to read this comic and it has given new light to the killer story.
Score: 5/5
Writer: Joshua Williamson Artist: Mike Henderson Publisher: Image Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 7/2/14 Format: Ongoing, Print/Digital