Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Curse #1Curse #1 of 4
Boom! Studios
Moreci, Daniel, Rossmo & Lorimer

The first issue of the werewolf mini-series reads like a mix between horror, mystery and real-life drama. The comic has a couple of plot threads introduced to make the story more than just a werewolf story and it works well. This is an intriguing launch that has good character work backed up by good execution. This is worth picking up.

The comic starts out with a man trapped in a basement in what appears to be a torture chamber. However, the dialogue between the captor and the captured seems reversed to the point where the captured is antagonistic towards his captor. The man trapped is talking a ton of trash about the other man's family but the captor seems to show a lot of patience. This seemed odd but based on the level of traps surrounding the captured it would appear he's the werewolf.

The comic then moves into the backstory which is probably the highlight of the book. What we have here is a man that is completely at his rope's end. A single dad, with little money and a very ill son is the basic setup for the lead character. At each page's turn we find more despair for the man as his life appears to be crumbling in a short amount of time.

While this is being introduced and expanded upon there is an investigation into slayings around town. The scenes are limited but the brutality of the comic book is on full display in these early scenes. There is no secret that the foil is a werewolf and a deadly one at that.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe artwork is very good. There seem to be a lot of snow scenes and this is used to counter the bright red and massive amounts of blood in the comic. The two contrast well to help provide a nice shock factor visually. The pencils and line work are more of a blended style instead of a crisp one which fits the story well and helps to make the presentation slightly less grotesque. Overall the visuals are good but they excel when it comes to showing the werewolf.

Curse is off to a promising start. The initial issue wastes no time by giving a personality to the lead character, showing the capabilities of the werewolf and getting down to the blood. The plots that are introduced don't mature in this issue but the setup seems sound enough to check out the rest of the series. This is a good first comic to what looks to be a promising mini-series.

3.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles