Well, when I reviewed last month’s House of Gold and Bones #1, I was genuinely sad to have not enjoyed it. Corey Taylor is a talented musician for a band I really like that seemed really passionate about making a successful comic book, and the passion was all over the pages. Unfortunately, so was the constant narration, unsatisfactory art, and unending slew of questions with no satisfactory answers was also all over those pages. I was ready to write the series off as a misguided first effort, but the passion he had for the book led me to decide it was worth giving this book another shot. And man am I glad I did! Click the link to see why I found this book to be such a marked improvement over the previous issue.
When we last left our hero(?), Zero, he was being chased by a bunch of dark forces screaming, “RU486”. Throughout the issue, he must try to escape these dark forces using his cunning and strength. He also works hard trying to decipher what is going on in this strange world in which he now finds himself, while also struggling to remember how he got there in the first place. But he can’t focus on that for too long, because the dark forces will not stop coming for him.
In the last review, I spent a lot of time focusing on the negatives of the comic, mostly because they simply overpowered anything positive I had to say on it. That overwhelming narration slowed everything to a crawl, and the protagonist simply wasn’t an interesting enough character in his own right. He seemed empty, almost like he was supposed to act as an audience surrogate, which is never a good idea in comics. In this issue, though, we see him actually display character. Instead of Zero just being some guy the comic happens to follow as things happen around him, he displays actual initiative in this issue. He stands up against the dark forces despite being completely outmatched, and he makes decisions against people like Adam (hurray for Biblical allusions!). This goes a long way towards making him more likable as a character in my eyes, and I found myself rooting for him in a way I simply didn’t in the first issue.
There were three main issues I had with the last comic, and all three have been rectified here, at least to some extent. The art is the one with which I still have the most issues, but I think it’s really limited to the drawing of the protagonist and Adam, who’s being overplayed as evil so much that we actually see him in a knockoff of an SS uniform here. The problem with the human characters presented is one of facial structure. They all end up having too much forehead, and characters without facial hair look equally off on the lower half of their face. Perhaps this is a me thing, but at the very least, what was a major issue in the last comic is now merely a minor one, and it shouldn’t get in the way of you buying this comic.
The biggest issue I had was the constant narration, which completely decimated the pacing. This has been fixed almost entirely through the introduction of Peckinpah, a side character that seems to want to help Zero. Well, maybe help is the wrong word, as any time a character in a world in which no one should be trusted is portrayed as kind I immediately get suspicious, but at the very least, he wants to help Zero uncover the mysteries of the world around him. Because the story is presented in mostly dialogue instead of an overlong monologue, there’s a lot more characterization presented, and the pace picks up quite nicely, slowing just enough so the reader can grasp what’s going on without bringing everything to a crawl. The material was always well-written, but now that it’s matching the medium in which its trying to tell the story, you can honestly enjoy it.
The final problem was an overabundance of mysteries to the point of frustration. A good creepy comic keeps things tense and keeps you guessing until the very end, but it also drops hints now and then while presenting the reader with an idea of what’s going on so they’re not completely lost and confused. It’s a tough balance to walk, and the first issue was definitely too far on the latter side of things. This issue, however, was far more balanced, giving a general idea of what the upcoming conflagration is (though, spoiler alert, a dictionary search tells me it’s not going to be sunshine and rainbows) while still keeping it’s ultimate purpose and Zero’s role in all this a mystery. It gives us enough reasons to care without spoiling it all for us, and that balance makes this a very compelling comic.
As much as I enjoyed this issue, I’m going to have to give it a conditional recommendation for its $3.99 cover price because of how vastly different in quality I found this issue to be compared to the first one. I honestly think you could drop the first issue and just pick it up here if the series interests you and/or you’re a big Stone Sour fan, but I can’t unconditionally recommend this given the potential for it to go off rails again. If the next issue is as good as this one, I’ll be able to bump both to a definite recommendation. For now, I’d hold off for one more issue to see where this is going. That said, this issue is a great sign of things to come, so here’s hoping it continues down this path.
Chase Wassenar, aka MaristPlayBoy, is the Lead Editor and Founder of the Red Shirt Crew. He’s really happy this issue worked out far better than the last one, and he definitely hopes this is the sign of a trend. You can read his other articles at ToyTMA, follow him on Twitter at @RedShirtCrew or email him at theredshirtcrew@gmail.com.
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