Horror Comics Weekly: The Empty Man, Sir Edward Grey, Doctor Spektor

The Empty Man 

The Empty Man #3

Written by Cullen Bunn

Art by Vanessa R. Del Rey

Published by Boom! Comics

Jensen and Langford are tracking down cult members, looking for clues as to what the Empty Man actually is after their tangle with a tangible beast in the previous issue. Jensen is starting to see things and getting anxious that

she has been exposed to the ever confusing Empty Man. We still don’t know what it is…but at the end of the issue we get some clues. This has a lot of backstory and a lot of progression. That doesn’t necessarily mean a lot happens. It’s nice to get some outside perspective, see some of the cults we have seen mentioned so often, but the issue seems like a bit of a filler, taking twenty two pages to say something that could have been said in ten. The end is a pretty big jump into the mystery of the Empty Man though and it does have it’s moment of true horror movie style scares. Vanessa Del Rey is a great genre artist, sometimes similar to Templesmith but gentler. They lose some of the steam they built in issue two but three has it’s perks and history to find.

Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland

Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland #3
Written by Kim Newman & Maura McHugh
Art by Tyler Crook

Published by Dark Horse Comics

Things are getting weird for Edward Grey. The town he is staying in is involved in the deaths he is investigating and while he is doing his best to discover who (or what) is doing so, the town is doing their best to make everything seem fine. It seems like issue three is the time for plot progression to occur and for action to take the back seat.

Lots of strange things are being alluded to but nothing is happening. The last page pretty much promises that next issue is going to be crazy but other than a wacky encounter with a cursed old man, this issue is a bit of a drag.

Doctor Spektor #3

Doctor Spektor

Written by Mark Waid

Art by Neil Edwards & Roberto Castro

Published by Dynamite Comics

With issue three, Waid is tying Spektor in with a lot of the old Gold Key Comics crew, with such forgotten names as Magnus, Doctor Solar and and Turok. While Spektor is reuniting with Magnus, Abby is being broke out of prison and introduced to prior mentioned characters.

Honestly, the book loses a lot of it’s charm. It went from a fun supernatural romp to a bogged down time travel story, switching paranormal for science fiction. It’s not really the realm for Spektor. It’s easy to see where the art switches too, Castro’s hand is a lot less refined than Edwards and we switch solid lines for the sketch effect.

Some weird stuff happens this issue, lots of non-realities and dimension-hopping and it’s easy to get lost. I really hope they just wrap up the tie in soon and focus on what made the comic so enjoyable to begin with.