Across truly unique paneling detailing a child trapped between the yells of their parents, twisting like the very visage of Knull’s crest, and emulating the flicker of flames and the drips of slime and blood the book is laden in, Level makes this home feel broken and terrifying - a nightmare turned real. It’s bare bones, but evocative and weighty stuff that feels emulative of a haunted house, constantly twisting and turning to meet the needs of its narrative in a way that imparts genuine terror even through fits of hilarity turned on their head. Grounded by the realistic and deflatingly horrified reactions of the children who have become their prey, the story hums along at a decent, if somewhat circuitous clip and ends on a real high note, tying perfectly into the larger story Cates and Stegman are telling. They pursue a young girl and her brother, play family, and deliver scares and scars with a reckless abandon that intimates just how genuinely scary a run-in with one of these monsters (let alone four of them) would be. The reader feels powerless as we see these familiar, but savagely alien invaders take over and defile the home of a struggling, but relatively relatable family. McLeod Chapman writes the ensuing panic, the abject horror that is Symbiotes under the sway of a deadly god, with an urgency that is much appreciated and authentic. Where the story goes from there, however, is something much more sinister, surprising and exquisitely structured. Simple enough! Just a bunch of alien murderers riding around in a dog, the usual (and all you need to know to buy into this story, really). But as Carnage descends on New York, its siblings will find it impossible to resist the siren song of KNULL… CARNAGE, four of the five LIFE FOUNDATION SYMBIOTES – Riot, Phage, Agony and Lasher – have been bonded to a stray dog, wandering the Midwest. HELLISH HORROR IN THE MIGHTY MARVEL MANNER! Since the conclusion of DEADPOOL VS. Listen to the latest episode of our weekly comics podcast!
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