More comics, this time it’s ‘Hellraiser’…
Yesterday was basically a morning of admin followed by an afternoon of ‘Interview Disappointment’ (didn’t get invited back for the next round of interviews) and an evening with my youngest daughter who has laid down a reading challenge that I am honour-bound to take up. My TBR Pile is giving me a hurt look right now, like it has no idea what it did wrong. It’s not you ‘TBR Pile’, it’s all on me.
Anyway…
This week’s blog has been ‘comic book heavy’ but that’s what happens sometimes, maybe you’ll see a book review tomorrow? In the meantime… I’ve been avoiding posting about the ‘Hellraiser’ mini-series, from Boom! Comics; partly because I read them out of order (easily done when they’re all ‘#1’) and I’ve been trying to get my head round the series, mostly because I lost the comics under a pile of paperwork… We’re here now though :o) This post gathers all five issues from the series then, links to the ones that I’ve already mentioned and quick thoughts on the rest…
‘Hellraiser Resurrections: New Wounds’ – Costa, Camallonga, Cramer, Dukeshire (Boom!)
Some of my favourite ‘Hellraiser’ tales are where some nasty piece of work thinks that they can ascend to ‘Cenobite Status’, only to find that they are too narrow-minded for ‘promotion’… And that’s what ‘New Wounds’ promises, at least that’s what it would have you believe…
If ‘New Wounds’ proves to be the beginning of something much longer than a five issue mini-series then consider me intrigued and interested in continuing; there is suddenly a lot more to the lore than I realised.
If ‘New Wounds’ is just a ‘one-off’ though… I’ve got to wonder what the point of it is, especially given the direction of the next four issues. I guess we’ll see either way but ‘New Wounds’ is still a decent tale of human evil and how easily we can let our desires fool us (superbly illustrated by Camallonga), it just feels a little oddly placed is all…
‘Hellraiser Resurrections: The Onanistic Ritual’ – Reviewed Here.
‘Hellraiser Resurrections: The Deep Gospel’ – Reviewed Here.
‘Hellraiser Resurrections: Hell’s Council’ – Villagallos O’Reilly, Ciregia, LaFuente (Boom!)
In which Butterball is joined by a much more interesting antagonist, hinting at another possible direction that a longer series could take…
‘Hell’s Council’ is a bit of a mess to be honest. Not in a bad way as such; more the kind of mess you get when you have a side plot that doesn’t add anything as well as a supposedly main character who is upstaged by someone much more interesting. Again, hints of where things could go if we head into ‘full series’ mode. There are more insights into how ‘Cenobite Hell’ functions though and if you’re a fan, that’s not a bad thing.
Not my favourite episode then but there is still stuff to recommend it. If we’re ‘getting the band back together’, then that has to mean Butterball as well.
'Hellraiser Resurrections: The Return of the Priest’ – Gailey, Avallone, Cuomo, Dukeshire (Boom!)
Is this a ‘follow on’ from ‘Hellraiser: Judgment’? I like to think so but either way, the Priest has returned and we see how his attempts to reform the Order of the Gash have fared. It’s not the Order you were expecting but with this issue, Gailey has left me with fingers crossed that this series expands. I’ve always thought that, origin story aside, the Hell Priest’s nature should be left a little ambiguous; Gailey showed me how wrong I was with a look inside that nailed head shedding a baleful light upon his motives. Fans of the first two films (maybe the third as well) will get a lot out of this issue in particular.
All in all then, I really should have followed the order a little more closely (no pun intended) but ‘Resurrections’ has been a series with plenty to offer, really capturing the vision of those first few ‘Hellraiser’ films.
Anyway…
This week’s blog has been ‘comic book heavy’ but that’s what happens sometimes, maybe you’ll see a book review tomorrow? In the meantime… I’ve been avoiding posting about the ‘Hellraiser’ mini-series, from Boom! Comics; partly because I read them out of order (easily done when they’re all ‘#1’) and I’ve been trying to get my head round the series, mostly because I lost the comics under a pile of paperwork… We’re here now though :o) This post gathers all five issues from the series then, links to the ones that I’ve already mentioned and quick thoughts on the rest…
‘Hellraiser Resurrections: New Wounds’ – Costa, Camallonga, Cramer, Dukeshire (Boom!)
Some of my favourite ‘Hellraiser’ tales are where some nasty piece of work thinks that they can ascend to ‘Cenobite Status’, only to find that they are too narrow-minded for ‘promotion’… And that’s what ‘New Wounds’ promises, at least that’s what it would have you believe…
If ‘New Wounds’ proves to be the beginning of something much longer than a five issue mini-series then consider me intrigued and interested in continuing; there is suddenly a lot more to the lore than I realised.
If ‘New Wounds’ is just a ‘one-off’ though… I’ve got to wonder what the point of it is, especially given the direction of the next four issues. I guess we’ll see either way but ‘New Wounds’ is still a decent tale of human evil and how easily we can let our desires fool us (superbly illustrated by Camallonga), it just feels a little oddly placed is all…
‘Hellraiser Resurrections: The Onanistic Ritual’ – Reviewed Here.
‘Hellraiser Resurrections: The Deep Gospel’ – Reviewed Here.
‘Hellraiser Resurrections: Hell’s Council’ – Villagallos O’Reilly, Ciregia, LaFuente (Boom!)
In which Butterball is joined by a much more interesting antagonist, hinting at another possible direction that a longer series could take…
‘Hell’s Council’ is a bit of a mess to be honest. Not in a bad way as such; more the kind of mess you get when you have a side plot that doesn’t add anything as well as a supposedly main character who is upstaged by someone much more interesting. Again, hints of where things could go if we head into ‘full series’ mode. There are more insights into how ‘Cenobite Hell’ functions though and if you’re a fan, that’s not a bad thing.
Not my favourite episode then but there is still stuff to recommend it. If we’re ‘getting the band back together’, then that has to mean Butterball as well.
'Hellraiser Resurrections: The Return of the Priest’ – Gailey, Avallone, Cuomo, Dukeshire (Boom!)
Is this a ‘follow on’ from ‘Hellraiser: Judgment’? I like to think so but either way, the Priest has returned and we see how his attempts to reform the Order of the Gash have fared. It’s not the Order you were expecting but with this issue, Gailey has left me with fingers crossed that this series expands. I’ve always thought that, origin story aside, the Hell Priest’s nature should be left a little ambiguous; Gailey showed me how wrong I was with a look inside that nailed head shedding a baleful light upon his motives. Fans of the first two films (maybe the third as well) will get a lot out of this issue in particular.
All in all then, I really should have followed the order a little more closely (no pun intended) but ‘Resurrections’ has been a series with plenty to offer, really capturing the vision of those first few ‘Hellraiser’ films.
So do any of these comics have anything to do with the others, as they are all under the title "Resurrections"? Or are they each the beginning of a series, titled by what comes after "Resurrections", ie, New Wounds, Hell's Council, Return of the Priest?
ReplyDeleteand I just looked around and answered my own question. From the publisher:
"a series of five one-shots setting up the launch of a new Hellraiser ongoing series coming to shelves this winter!".