‘The Evil Within #1’ Review
Written by Ian Edginton | Art by Alex Sanchez | Published by Titan Comics
We start off with Dana and her friend driving to hand out missing person flyers when their car runs out of gas in the middle of nowhere. At night. In the rain. Yup, that’s where we’re going here…
Anywho, she goes to a seemingly deserted and dark diner to try and get help, but sees a strange figure. Fleeing, she bumps into Paul, an ER resident at a local hospital, who promptly tells her to run away from the walking dead chasing them. However, Dana looks and sees her missing friend Kate before flashing lights appear and suddenly she’s in a hospital and confronted by a nurse who tells her that Kate is ‘no longer with us’. Soon, Paul and Dana are reunited, running from a man with a safe covered in barbed wire for a head affectionately known in the concept art pages as ‘Boxman’ (actually known as The Keeper) and they discover more about their terrifying surroundings.
If you can’t tell, I’m really kinda bummed out about this comic. I’ve seen gameplay and trailers for The Evil Within game this 4 part series is a prequel to, and it looks brutal, gory, and downright terrifying as well as pretty fresh. This comic reeked of cliché, felt devoid of any real story or well written conversation, and to be honest just failed to entice me. There were also a couple of bits that stretched the suspension of disbelief; when discussing Kate’s kidnapping, you can see a guy walk past Kate wearing a bloodied burlap sack over his head, in a very public place.
The art is ok; dark and gritty, as you might expect, but nothing I’d rave about to people. The overall style felt more like a game than a story though, a common failing amongst crossovers, where I’m watching two characters play a video game than be a part of a side along story. There’s no tension or suspense or even conflict, just a series of events and an awful lot of running away from things with no real purpose.
Maybe the other three issues of The Evil Within might be better. Maybe there’s a great fight scene or something scary or just actual story. But honestly if this was meant to get me excited or interested for the game, it utterly failed, and considering I’ve already got a rough idea of how I think this series will end I’m really in two minds to bother reading on.
The Evil Within #1 is out now from Titan Comics.
