Flint, Michigan still does not have drinkable water. Detroit has become buried in corruption and the world just keeps going. But one woman has had enough and her solution is extreme. Comic books can shine a light if enough people engage in the conservation on the issue being presented. In this case SWAT is about to barrel through a church door to get at the slightly built Willow.
How did she get to be this way? Told in nonlinear style ‘Unhngd’ is the story of Willow and her initial optimism that turned her into the Punisher. Her community consists of Andy, a young man with Asperger’s and the woman of the community center along with the usual people who make up the mosaic of a neighborhood. The city was coming up, the panels of each page shows so much hope you just know that it’s going to end badly. Then there’s detective Sawyer who still believes that he’s going to be the one cop who doesn’t get jaded. At some point he and Willow intersect, things get worse from there.
‘Unbound Realms’ is an imprint of Advent Comics where in this case ‘Unhngd’ deals with horror. In the first issue what you should be afraid of is apathy. It creates an environment where the evil that Willow speaks about is allowed to fester. By the end Willow and Sawyer collide, still it doesn’t even begin to allude to how things got so bad so quickly. It’s well written horror. The pace is fast and you don’t know when or if something is going to jump out at you. It’s all psychological. Elijah Thomas is writing with purpose. By setting his narrative in a modern day, real city Thomas wants you to know that you should be afraid.
Not ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ scared. There’s no boogeyman – yet. Rather, you need to be on the lookout for the person you would never think of being a monster.
There was this show in the late 1980’s called ‘Friday the 13th: The Series.’ The premise was based on two cousins who inherited their uncle’s antique shop. The problem, every item the uncle sold was cursed. The kind where demons come to collect your soul and bodily drag you down to hell. Together with an expert in antiquities and the occult, these three sought out to gather these hellish items. At times the episodes had gore, but it played more on your mind than anything else. Nonetheless it was still scary. That’s what ‘Unhngd’ will make you think of. The one question that will have you searching for the second issue is just who or what is the monster?
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