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    Haunt #1

    Haunt » Haunt #1 - Volume 1 released by Image on October 1, 2010.

    137's Haunt #1 - Volume 1 review

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    The Haunt Volume 1

    The Story:  This is a collection of issues 1-5 of Haunt. The story focuses on a twisted Priest Daniel Kilgore and his brother Kurt Kilgore who is a one man wrecking crew/secret agent who is murdered and comes back to haunt his brother Daniel shortly after a recent church confession of his most recent mission.   
      
    Kurt confessed to his brother often concerning his missions, his most recent confession was his last. Kurt explains to his brother that he was sent in on a snatch and grab mission to recover a scientist named Dr. Shillinger. Kurt witnesses Dr. Shillinger  was using living people to perform bio experiments on and kills him, while trying to escort the wounded prisoners to safety. Meanwhile a third party slips in and nabs one of his objectives unbeknownst to him. This is all just half of the 1st issue.  
      
    Now at Kurt's Funeral his brother Daniel is greeted by Kurt's ghost and he is trying to put the pieces of his murder together. First requesting Daniel to pay a visit to his widow Amanda who Daniel had previous history with as well and he hates. (which unfolds throughout other issues in this volume).  
     
    After Much Bickering Daniel Agree's, shortly after one of those awkward moments between Daniel and Amanda she begs him to stay while she goes to sleep doped up on sleeping pills. Meanwhile later that evening Daniel takes watch, a crew of two intruders break into her home. and Kurt goes to warn his brother that these men are dangerous while Daniel is unaware of the gravity of the situation. Once Kurt's ghost comes into contact with Daniels Body he transforms into the HAUNT. Some kind of ectoplasmic being with super strength and agility able to create weird blades or bond it's body to objects.  While the subconscious of the two brothers fight for control of Daniels body. 
     
    After killing first and then taking names later the Haunt confirms Daniels suspicion that he's not going crazy and his brothers ghost is real. The following issues pretty much flesh out the missing pieces to how this situation became what it is, and where it's headed. It ends with Daniel becoming a secret agent and happy with the new direction of his life and newfound abilities.  
     
    The Good:  The writing is pretty good, although fairly predictable given the history of the creators previous projects. Invincible (Kirkman) and Spawn (McFarlane) I enjoyed it a lot, especially when the Haunt Character is formed because of the Bipolar esque personality of our protagonists once merged.  
     
    The Artwork is pretty good but ultimately is what kept this from being 5 stars for me. While some of the quality suffers due to Ryan Ottley doing pencils on Invincible monthly on top of finishing Layouts by Capullo and sometimes it seems the inks by McFarlane are rushed. It doesn't really hurt the story at all, just something that personally bothered me since I know what all three artists are capable of. I could only imagine the strain of pumping out two books a month and on time. So hats off to Ottley, luckily their colorist Fco Plascencia does an AMAZING job with the colors just adding great vibrance and atmosphere to the book in general.  
    Greg Capullo takes the pencils over full time in issue 8 so I'm eager to get my hands on Volume 2 of Haunt releasing in January of 2011. Meanwhile giving Ottley a break from busting his butt providing his amazing talent to the title to get things started.  
     
    The Bad: It would be nice here and there if you could get a heads up we jumped forward a day or month, etc in time. Since you'll be reading one page and flip to the next and you're in some other scenario you kinda flip back every now and then to see if you missed a page. (or maybe I just suck at reading comics).  
    While this is a pretty cool concept, a lot of people reading it will basically interject that it seems like you're reading Amazing Spiderman with a Combat trained Venom/Spawn Symbiote thrown on an angry father Joe Shmoe and his powers, poses, almost seem like it's Spider-man with a new suit. It's not a misleading conclusion to come to since it reminds me of the art during McFarlanes run on Amazing Spiderman. But that's what McFarlane likes, symbiotes, super natural bad asses living in semi real world situations and I'm okay with that. It's more of a nuisance than something that's bad. 
     
    The Verdict: If you're looking for the next big thing in McFarlane/Kirkman/Capullo/Ottley land, I definitely recommend picking this up. Above my minor nitpicking I enjoyed it a lot and even giggled a few times at the brothers fighting for control during fights. It's well written flows well and had me wanting more at the end. Plus the quality of the paper/finished product is amazing, as one would expect from Image Comics. At a whopping US $9.99 you get a lot of comic for your dollar. 

    Other reviews for Haunt #1 - Volume 1

      Haunt Volume 1 Review 0

      Although co-created by both Robert Kirkman and Todd McFarlane it's only Kirkman that writes the scripts for this volume. Kirkman does a terrific job of introducing all the key characters in this volume, as well as giving some exciting events as well. It is however the way that Kirkman puts the concept across in this volume that interests me the most, as despite one of them being a ghost the history between them adds a lot to their characteristics. Kirkman also shows the development of Haunt as a...

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      Hauntingly Wicked 0

      The Story:Daniel Kilgore is a priest who gets tangled in his brother Kurt's life of espionage. His brother was a secret agent and was murdered because someone thought he had a scientists notebook which was stolen when the scientist was murdered. Now Daniel is "haunted" by his brothers ghost. He can see him and talk to him, but no one else can. Together they can fuse into Haunt, and become virtually indestructible. They must overcome their differences to find the culprit responsible for Kurt's de...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

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