Cracking Family Bonds
Seriously, Jeremy Haun has just been NAILING THE HELL out of these wraparound covers. This one, I gotta say, is by far the best yet. In stark contrast from the fleetingly creepy covers of before (just in terms of the front image) this one appears, at first, to be a little eerily happy. Something doesn't feel right because there IS no creepy stuff. Way too normal. But it does work really well as a regular cover. Then you turn it over to see if it's still a wraparound AND THERE'S THE DARKNESS! In a picture frame, even. Nice.
David Hine, Jeremy Haun, or both are GENIUSES. Page 2: Hope is playing with her new disturbing Darkness-Kitties. Her mom freaks out, and we see it's because HER ARM IS COMPLETELY COVERED IN CRAZY DARKNESS STUFF! But we didn't see it before simply due to the angle. It wasn't obvious AT ALL that her arm was being hidden until AFTER you knew it had been hidden.
I'm not sure how I feel about some of the developments in this issue. Certainly it's no surprise to see Hope acting all bizarre, that's a trope I generally enjoy, but a lot of what she does seems to make no sense in any context. She pretended to go to the bathroom and ran to the men trying to kidnap her and Jenny.... who were already waiting right out front? And Jenny... her monologue about essentially not having any memories from after her death in the previous universe (and not knowing that's the reason.)... it seems too cliche. Why is SHE freaking out about memory gaps, nobody else has them in this newly constructed universe? That bothers me.
We see very little of Jackie in this issue, and so his portion of the story at the end feels a little rushed. I think he should've taken another issue to develop his suspicions before the admittedly still mind blowing reveal. I think if we were lead to believe there WAS something going on, we'd be more prepared to... no, wait. Actually... Hmmm.... I don't know, it felt a little too quick.
In Conclusion: 4/5
A few hiccups, sure, but this is still another extremely solid issue of The Darkness under David Hine. Pick it up with #101, you'll be fine. Because that's what I did. David Hine makes this incredibly accessible to new readers without losing the 100 issues of history. Jackie's family is cracking apart, and The Darkness is at the root.