Friday, September 20, 2013

Comics Review: John Carpenter's Asylum (Issues 1 and 2)


If nothing else, the Asylum series is one that has some real potential in its pages. Published by Storm King Comics and produced by the legendary horror director John Carpenter, the book tells the story of a world overrun by evil – and the lonely few who are fighting it.

If that rings a little too familiar to you right off the bat…well, you’re not wrong. Much of what appears in the first few issues of the story seems pulled from a checklist of standard supernatural horror tropes: there’s the rise of a deadly evil on the horizon, a rogue police officer, a quirky seer, a wise older mentor, a disgraced main character with a tragic backstory – and they all have to team up to save the world from the apocalypse.

That’s not to say that none of these elements work. Tropes are tropes for a reason – and with a little inventive twist, they can give birth to the makings of a good story. That “good story” pokes its head up in fits and starts throughout these first two issues, and gives some hope for future installments.

As things get rolling, the basic narrative is pretty simple: Beckett (the priest) and Duran (the cop) cross paths as Duran follows the trail of a potential murderer and Beckett battles a case of demonic possession. It turns out they’re after the same person, just for different reasons. Duran is a man of facts and logic (coupled with a fiery temper), and Beckett’s mysterious attitude and spiritual bent means the two men clash immediately. It’s not long before Duran views Beckett as a suspect in the ongoing investigation of a serial killer dubbed “The Angel Killer”. There’s interesting potential in the developing relationship between Beckett and Duran, and the repercussions of their developing dynamic on those around them, to be sure – but this central character relationship never really finds its footing consistently in these first two issues.


Where Asylum falters most, though, is in its choice to not flesh out the world in which it takes place. The setting is ostensibly a Los Angeles of the near future, plagued by waves of demonic activity and crime. From page one, we know that the villain of the piece is the devil himself. But throughout the first two issues, we as readers are given little, if any, particular insight into what sort of wider world the main characters are living in, and what sort of mythology is playing out around them. Hints are few and far between – but when they do come, they’re enticing.

It’s clear that Beckett, Duran, and the rest are living in a world that is different from our own. But the questions of just exactly how and why are left almost entirely untouched, set aside in favor of a chase narrative that, while decently engaging, feels as though its floating in the ether, ungrounded in the world where it ostensibly takes place. That, more than anything, weakens the impact of the overall story.  

Still, the story is intriguing, and there’s potential for development in all the areas of the book that seem slightly lacking so far. Perhaps the strongest point is the artwork by Leonardo Manco, which has a very particular aesthetic and actually does a better job giving the reader a feel for the world of the story than the narrative itself at times. There are some truly impressive splash pages, and the demonic designs in particular put an eye-catching spin on the standard portrayal that you might expect.

Unfortunately, even this strength is undercut by the fact that the story’s female characters are drawn as voluptuous sex objects rather than actual people, appearing scantily clad or nude for no discernible reason. Yes, this is a horror comic book – but there’s a line between reasonable and gratuitous, and for my money this book crosses it needlessly more than once. Not only is this tendency frustrating, it’s also distracting from a narrative perspective. Needless violence, brutalization, and gratuitous nudity do not a good story make.


For a book with the great John Carpenter’s name on it, Asylum falls short in its first two issues. There’s enough potential in the pages to hold interest, but also some serious challenges to overcome in order to make this a truly unique and strong horror comic.   

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