Review – Ghost #1 (Dark Horse)

Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick, Chris Sebela
Artist: Ryan Sook
Release Date: 18th December 2013

Demons have possessed a bunch of random innocent Chicagoans and Elisa Cameron has made it her business to exorcise every last one of them. This is accomplished by literally grabbing the demon by the head and wrenching them out of the victim’s body, which is more subtle than the right hook of an exposition we get to hear twice thanks to the book’s introduction.

The dialogue is overly enthusiastic and bubbly with some ropey interactions between the flat characters we get to meet. Among them – a crack team of demon hunters – who are basically a bunch of hipsters armed with a getaway car and the power to utilise the Internet! There are a couple of chase scenes where needless dialogue has been added in an attempt to amuse the reader; which is awkward as most of the lines in this book are only comical when read out loud. Seriously – the chase starts off with line, “Gotta catch me first.”

The art is clean, colourful and for the most part capable but has to shoulder some of the blame when it comes to every character besides Ghost being wholly flat and unremarkable. They look like featureless plastic people. In some respects, everyone in this book manages to be more of a ghost than Elisa and she isn’t the strongest character herself. Avoid.