Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Toni Fejzula
Released: 30th July, 2014

There’s something not quite right about Veil. I’m talking both in terms of the fiction being provided to us herein, as well as the series as a whole, here.

On the one hand, there’s a hell of a lot to like – not least, Toni Fejzula’s beautifully ethereal watercolour-esque art, which sucessfully captures the otherworldlyness of the story, with a wonderfully unsettling shifting sense of perspective that makes you certain that all is not quite right here. Rucka’s script – now that we’re on firmer ground in terms of what the hell (and I use that term very specifically) is going on – gets to the down and dirty of the story, and this issue sees a pretty intriguing riff on the plot twist at the end of the previous one. It’s at least paying off on the mystery built up across issues 1 and 2, so you can hardly fault the creative team for not following through on the promise of stranger things to come.

But imminent payoff or no, there’s still something off about the last two issues. Maybe it’s the crammed-in feeling of the artwork – each page is incredibly dense, with a lot of plot happening rather quickly, and this feels a little at odds with the slow reveal of the first two issues. Perhaps it’s down to the relatively one dimensional villains – but we can and should forgive the series for it, given that it’s a 5-issue joint that needs to crack along to its conclusion and doesn’t really have the time to faff around with deep backstories. But whatever it is, having re-read the series from the first issue, I’m not feeling as engaged as I’d like with the story. Maybe it’s just me, who knows?

It’s not bad, not by any stretch of the imagination – the gorgeous artwork and solid writing see to that – and now that we know what’s going on, the final issue will be the true test of whether or not this transpires to be an essential series. But for now, I still can’t conjure up a reason to rush out and buy it. It’s interesting, certainly, and hardly a rip-off, but I can’t help but feel your money might be spent more rewardingly elsewhere. But we’ll see come issue 5.

Rating: 2/5.

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The writer of this piece was: Ross Sweeney
Ross tweets from @Rostopher24