Review: Cold Spots #2

It seems that while you can take Cullen Bunn out of Harrow County, you can’t take the haint out of him. And why would you want to? Cold Spot proves that he still has plenty of new ways to get under your skin and keep you looking over your should for the things that shouldn’t be there.

And while there are similarities to Harrow County, Cold Spot is distinctly its own story. It moves at a deliberate, distinct pace. Letting the atmosphere creep its way inside you, Bunn already makes you wonder if Dan Kerr would have been better off not going after the girl he recently discovered was his daughter.

If you are expecting big action scenes in this issue, you are going to be disappointed. Bunn has proven that he can deliver those aplenty in his super-hero books like Asgardians of the Galaxy, X-Men Blue, and Suicide Squad. Here he is developing a mood; a place where figures may or may not be standing next to you in the fog. All of the townspeople have a hangdog feel to them, as if they are certain they live under a doom.

And while Bunn’s writing and plotting certainly deserve praise, Mark Torres’ art is doing so much of the heavy lifting in this book. As in his work on Judge Dredd and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Torres adds so much here. He builds a gorgeous and haunting impressionistic land- and seascape of the town and island. The way he keeps things hidden the the fog and builds the general atmosphere of unease throughout the book is stunning.

Much of this feel is done through his color design. I think that color work is often overlooked when people talk about comics. When it is wrong, a whole book feels like disappointment. When the color is an afterthought books feel okay. But when it is done right, like it is here, it transforms the whole comic book and elevates the craft of the line work around it.

Torres’ colors in this issue are so right — from the smears of pinks and reds of a clouded sunset to the pale grayish blues and greens of the foggy morning. All of the choices are deliberate and set your nerves jangling with a pervasive sense of danger.

Oh, I almost forgot… There is a qr code in the beginning of the book that lets you download the soundtrack for this issue. Normally I think these are kind of gimmicky. Here the book stands on its own and doesn’t need the music, but you’ll be glad it is playing while you read.

With these early issues, Bunn and Torres are building the tension in a way that reminds me of the best suspense/horror movies. They lead you from normal to unusual to disturbing at such a deliberate pace that you are never sure when the world they build became one of of inescapable horror. You get the feeling that if Dan ran now, he could escape what’s coming, but he can’t leave those who are important to him behind.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Mark Torres
Letters: Simon Bowland
Publisher: Image Comics

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!