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Oct 07, 2009 Web Exclusive By Jeremy Nisen

I don’t want to dance around my main irritation with this book: It’s being presented as a collaboration between noted writer Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead, Invincible, Astounding Wolf-Man) and artist Todd McFarlane.

Todd McFarlane was undoubtedly the hottest comic book artist of the 1990s. His visual take on Spider-Man was innovative, stylish, and moved the medium forward. He was the lynchpin that enabled the Image founders to secede from Marvel and form their own über-successful company. And his Spawn title showcased his amazing art and, well, inconsistent storytelling abilities. Then he went all big biz, making toys, buying record-setting baseballs, getting sued, etc., etc.

Fans have been waiting a long time for news of Todd McFarlane to involve him drawing.

So here we have Haunt—with a fine cover by McFarlane that has the title character in a knock-off pose from McFarlane’s own Spider-Man work. Substitute ecto-ejaculate for webs, I guess. My first thought: ewww. Second thought: of course he’s still good. Still kinetic and exciting. But it’s nothing that I don’t already have in my collection from circa 1991.

Then you go inside, and the art is decidedly not Mr. McFarlane. The art, if I understand it correctly, has layouts done by the very capable Greg Capullo, pencil finishes by the also talented Ryan Ottley, and the supposed star of the show inking and coloring. Look: Inkers are awesome, the backbone of every book, but nobody wants to pay to see Todd McFarlane on inks.

Some panels you see a little McFarlane shine through, some you don’t, and the end effect is often distracting and not especially effective. It’s a collaboration of three great artists equating to merely competent. The whole is truly less than the sum of its parts. Fans wanted to see if McFarlane was still on his game, or even better, if he could move the damned medium again. Haunt leaves both questions completely unanswered.

In brief, the story is solid. It cribs a little from my favorite golden age DC Comics character Captain Triumph, in that a dead brother’s ghost enters the body of the living brother to imbue him with special abilities (the ectoplasmic semen effect all the more ironic because the host brother is a priest in his day job—please let that be on purpose).

It’s fast-paced, it’s weird, there’s a little emotional resonance…yeah, this could have been very good, if not great. It may get there if they lay off Todd McFarlane as a gimmick and just let the other guys go crazy with the interiors. (www.imagecomics.com)

Author rating: 4/10