This four-parter from Boom! is off to a rousing start, taking a terrifying idea – near-death-experiences – and piling some paranoia on top of it. This is some fine introspective horror.
Written by Jason Starr
Illustrated by Andrea MuttiNear future, and some people who have had Near-Death Experiences have come back “changed.” They exhibit extreme behavioral changes, becoming increasingly paranoid and violent, and no one knows why. People who have had NDE’s fall immediately under suspicion, and in some cases, are murdered by justice-seeking vigilantes. It is in this world where Beth, a quiet high school student with a bright future, will learn just how quickly friends and family will turn on her when she has the bad luck of surviving the worst night of her life…
Beth is 16. Unsurprisingly, her prom night is awful. Surprisingly, it ends with her death – and most surprising of all, she comes to life again. But survivors of near-death-experiences have a grisly reputation – and it’s a reputation she might live up to, if she survives being a social pariah.
The issue moves along quickly, ramping up the stakes at every turn. It’s the kind of revved-up pace we’re using to seeing in miniseries, only in this case it serves the concept beautifully. Over the course of one night, Beth’s life was changed into a living nightmare; the fast clip of the issue helps us get a grasp on this change, with Beth’s unembroidered narration streamlining the process. Vignette after vignette illustrates how every aspect of her life has been subverted; and all the while, the implications of Beth’s accident echo through the comic, growing up into a crescendo that neatly echoes the structure of a bad dream. Beth moves from an unhappy outcast to someone with nowhere to turn; someone whose life is going to have to change in a big way if she’s going to survive at all.
Andrea Mutti’s energetic art is up to the challenge of delivering so much information – and so much horror – in so little space. Fragile, frittered-out lines lay out the characters’ faces, and are balanced against cleaner and simpler backgrounds. And while there tend to be six or more panels per page, the layouts scan beautifully, making sure every beat of the story hits home.
Most of the paranoid atmosphere comes across in Beth’s expressions; it’s her nightmare we’re living, after all, and her perspective that’s focalizing events. Beth always seems to be feeling more than one thing at once, giving us a window into the overwhelming situation she’s been put in. There’s also an appreciable messiness to these expressions; her face crumples into sobs, viscerally getting across the intensity of her predicament. The other characters do feel a bit one-note by contrast; but then, this dichotomy underscores the isolation of Beth’s situation.
On the other end of the spectrum, a page wherein Beth describes what she saw when she died is the most outright terrifying, demonstrating an aptitude for fantastical horror as well as the slow burn of the more banal scenes. It’s the puzzling details – odd lumps of flesh, the shapes of tattoos – that really make this moment, implying even more weirdness than is made explicit.
All the while, Vladimir Popov’s colours are dark and muted, establishing a grim mood. Most of the issue takes place at night, but Popov keeps the effect of the light diverse, evoking the flare of headlights and the harsh glare of hospital rooms.
“The Returning” is a lean, efficient read that builds up plenty of atmosphere before you get to the last page. The writing is well-paced, and the art is both seamless and expressive, nailing the paranoid landscape that Beth is negotiating. There’s no question that this cliffhanger will make you want to pick up the next issue; with an introduction this intense, checking out the rest of this series is looking like a necessity.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
