Review – Hoax Hunters #2 (Heavy Metal)

Publisher: Heavy Metal
Writer(s): Michael Moreci, Steve Seeley
Artist: Chris Dibari
Release Date: 29th April, 2015

Following on from a strong opening issue, ‘season two’ of Hoax Hunters continues here by ramping up the tensions between the team in the wake of their less-than-successful foray into the Parisian catacombs, as well as delving a little deeper into Jack’s exploits in the prison dimension. Unfortunately, the latter section is likely to leave new readers somewhat bewildered as we find ourselves suddenly transported to a world of monsters and demons without any real explanation. Don’t get me wrong, the developments here will most definitely be welcomed by long-time readers, but perhaps a little more of a ‘previously on Hoax Hunters’ style catch-up would have made these scenes a little more accessible for newbies.

This minor niggle aside, Moreci and Seeley continue to do a fantastic job with the characterisation throughout this issue, leaving no doubt as to the mindsets of the individual team members while also managing to introduce a terrifying new foe at the same time. Once again, Chris Dibari’s grimy artistic style meshes perfectly with the story being told (not to mention the Heavy Metal Magazine aesthetic as a whole), providing some brilliantly kinetic scenes featuring Jack, and really flexing his creative muscle with the design and reveal of the aforementioned ‘terrifying foe’.

With a five-issue arc, the pace is noticeably quicker than the long-form storytelling of the Image Comics series, but Moreci and Seeley are still managing to keep everything flowing smoothly without any significant details being lost in the shuffle or feeling rushed. There are a lot of threads being dangled at the moment, however, and it’ll definitely be interesting to see whether they can pull them all together over the course of the remaining three issues to leave us with a satisfying enough conclusion. However, with this particular creative partnership at the helm, I’m quietly confident that they won’t disappoint.

Overall, while it’s starting to feel less and less like a jumping-on point for new readers, Moreci and co. are still doing an admirable job here in providing a subtle shift in tone for the ‘Heavy Metal’ version of their cult series, giving readers an impressive mixture of fresh new ideas and the continuation of existing ones, and crafting a light-hearted supernatural horror series that’s well worth a look.

Rating: 3/5.

The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson (aka Ceej)
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