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Salem: Queen of Thorns #0
Boom! Studios |
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You have to respect a comic that takes on colonial America as the playground for a story. Here, we are presented with the tale of Elias Hooke. Hooke at first strikes you as a stereotypical lone, western-warrior type. In the story he's charged with standing against the Covern of Thirteen. That coven is a group of witches who have been granted elemental powers, each one derived from an aspect of Christ's crucifixion.
Sound controversial? Interestingly, it wasn't the religions right that raised concerns over the subject matter of this title. It was the pagan community who contacted Boom! concerned about the depiction of witches. Boom! issued an open letter to quell concerns early on and the title moved forward. Who knew that particular community was so well organized?
Getting back to the story, our hero Hooke lives in the time of the Salem witch trials and faces off against a group of morally bankrupt religious crusaders led by the one-eyed and dark souled Brother Hopkins.
Hopkins is killing townsfolk labeling them witches in an effort to take money where he can in the name of the church. Standing up to him just before Hook arrives is a single Deacon (named Wood) who eventually assists Hooke in rescuing a woman (Hannah Foster) charged as a witch.
Hooke is a spell caster, a ward carrier and a bit of an unholy good guy in this story. Deacon Wood plays the pius religious figure tossed into a world he doesn't understand. The rescued witch (who is really simply a religious non-believer) is a firehouse free spirit just looking for a religious figure to enflame. The three are a nice balance, narrative-wise and Brother Hopkins makes a creepy nemesis within this early chapter of the tale. For me, there were shades of Herr Star (from the Garth Ennis' Preacher) in the character of Brother Hopkins and that resemblance goes deeper than just the eye wound (as one flogging scene clearly depicts).
One thing that struck me about this tale was the setting. For the story the writers are telling, it's near perfect. From the start you are greeted with a house in the woods that silently screams the word isolation. Here, when the night comes creatures walk the earth and you are greeted with that sense of being alone from the first page. Had the story been set anytime other than the pre-industrial colonial age, this would have been much harder to pull off. Here you feel oppressed and welcome the hero all that much quicker.
Boom! Studios bills the lead character, Elias Hooke, as a bit of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane or Clint Eastwood's The Man with No Name. I would say the later analogy was the closer one for me. This character has all the trademarks of Clint Eastwood... few words, dark humor, heavy action and he even carries Eastwood's trademark sneer into more than one panel.
Writers Chris Morgan & Kevin Walsh handle the story well. It pulled me in fairly quickly.
Moving to the art, Wilfredo Torres does really well with the colonial feel and the atmosphere of the story. His art is a really solid mesh with as he presents a haunting atmosphere which the story needed. While reading though, I felt some of his individual character detail could have been stronger at a few points. It's a small gripe as he clearly put a lot of effort in to Hooke's disposition and most of the scenes, but I think some of the supporting cast and background character's facial features seemed at times rushed giving the art an occasional inconsistent feel.
Aside from Hooke and his environment, one visual that was quite impressive within Mr. Torres art was the Queen of Thorns. We see her at the start and end of this story. First she's stealing a baby and at the end, she's facing off against Hooke, the Deacon and Hannah Foster. This penultimate villain appears as a force of nature within the story. She looks quite a tree come to life and rages with visual power. She makes for an extremely interesting character, even if we don't get to see much of what she can do in this outing.
This issue (#0) is fairly recent to the stands having hit store shelves on January 30th so you should still be able to pick up a copy and try it for yourself..
This first issue does exactly what it sets out to do. It integrates the reader in the story, introduces the characters and sets up the narrative tension for the issues that follow. I enjoyed the story and found it fresh and interesting. Casting what may often be seen as "bad guy" roles as the hero and watching as Hooke work his way through the opposition really worked for me. Here, I got more than I was expecting and I already liked what I saw on the cover.
