Alright, let's get back to the book that is based on one of my favorite horror series of all time....... Puppet Master! Woo! Yeah! You bastards better be as excited about this as I am...... how about a little excited? Don't worry you'll get there eventually. Anyway, it's Just For The Hell of It Mondays, where I've become obsessed with looking at horror comics new and old because as much as we love DC Comics, it's okay to love other things as well....... and this is the only time where I would be able to review a horror comic on this site. You're right, this totally needs to become a horror site. Maybe with a little proddin' and a pushin' we'll be able to get Jim on board. Okay, let's check out Puppet Master #2.
Written By: Shawn Gabborin
Art By: Michela De Sacco, Yann Perrelet
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 29, 2015
Publisher: Action Lab
They're Back, No Strings Attached
*Non Spoilers and Score At Bits and Pieces*
Okay, let's get back to the Bodega Bay Inn where in the last issue we saw a group of college friends head out to the Inn because.......... Well, I guess because college kids are stupid. I understand the appeal of checking out a rumored haunted place, but with Nazi assassinations, reanimated dick bags and demon infestations in this place's history, not to forget the talk of the town about the killer puppets that reside there, I think I could have found a better place to hang out for a weekend. So the kids went, two broke off to go "fuck" and of course were murdered and after another friend went to have himself a pity party all by his lonesome and met a similar terrible end, our issue closed with the four remaining friends finding out that this jaunt to Bodega Bay might not have been the best of ideas. We've got all that and a really cool premise dealing with the people of the town leaving dolls in the hotel as a way to appease the spirits and to hopefully cure them of their woes. Let's get back into this story and see what our remaining characters are going to do now that they are faced with the death of a friend. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins where we left off with our four remaining college students finding their friend Barry's head squashed in and it's at this point where we as readers start screaming at the page for them to get the hell out of there and that's the beauty of this issue. These kids still have two missing friends somewhere in the hotel and they can't just leave them to whoever killed Barry could they? Now we know from the last issue that these two have already bit the big one from the most epic Tunneler kill ever, but our four little Indians can't in good conscience just up and leave them, so they decide to split up and search for them. I love this part too because me being a coward personally couldn't be trusted not to leave their asses behind and with this thought, Beth suggests that they split up the couples in their search so neither decides to say "We can always make new friends next semester". This might not be anything special to any of you out there but it really takes out that nagging feeling you get when watching a flick and knowing that you wouldn't be doing the same thing. So no one is going home until they find their friends........ or at least their remains.
Too bad that in the middle of the book we don't have any real excitement going on as the two pairs split up to search the hotel. Mostly we just question what's going on with Beth's boyfriend Corey as we find out that he's had a lot of what he calls indigestion problems as of late and us just waiting for the next terrible thing to happen as we see puppets scurry into rooms and the kids thinking that it's only rats. Eventually though, after a a pair find the remains of the squatter from the beginning of the first issue, we get our climax as one of the other pair gets his face burnt by Torch and then gets riddled with bullets from Six Shooter.
In the end, Beth comes to the rescue and knocks Six Shooter away and as the guy lays dying, Beth asks "Why did you bring us here?", which is a legitimate question....... just not as someone is dying in front of you. It's a very odd question at this point, but apparently we needed it to add to this issue's cliffhanger because with his last breath he says, "Me? It was Corey's idea." So, with Torch bearing down on her, Beth takes off in search of Corey and as our issue ends, we see Corey surrounded by the rest of the puppets and holding the lifeless body of the girl he was paired with saying "Beth, I'd like you to meet my friends." Looking at that final page, I see that Corey is rocking a belt made of dolls and that really interests me because of the story that the writer has set up and I hope that the pay off is as good as story that he set up.
That's it for this issue of Puppet Master and while I still liked this issue because of my fanaticism with this horror series, this issue just wasn't as interesting as the first. Throughout this review I kept saying "the guy" or "the girl" when talking about characters who weren't Corey or Beth because while I could have easily looked at their names in the book, these characters just weren't memorable or even interesting. Hell, the only characters that really were interesting were the two mentioned before and Barry who died at the end of the first issue and the other two who died could simply be called "the two who want to fuck". I understand that this is only a three issue story arc and the majority of the characters are pretty much there to be fodder, but something to make them at least stand out a little would have been nice. Even the kills in this issue were less impressive than in the first issue and with the ability to create anything, that's a bit of a let down. The art continues to be strong here though and even though this chapter to the story wasn't the best, it still has me interested in this story's finale because of the cliffhanger it gives us. Hopefully the story arc ends as strong as it began.
Bits and Pieces:
Even though the action and the kills have been toned down from the previous issue and the character development has been put on hold, making these kids easy to forget, the art in this book continues to impress. Not the best second issue to a three part story arc, but I don't think that will sway any of the fans of the Puppet Master franchise from picking up another brand new installment to this enjoyable series.
5.5/10
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