Review – Infidel #2 (Image Comics)

Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Pornsak Pichetshote
Artwork: Aaron Campbell, Jose Villarrubia (colours)
Release Date: 18th April 2018

Back in February, Ceej here at the BCP reviewed issue #1 of Infidel and here’s me having to admit it completely flew under my radar. I do love me some good horror, but for whatever reason this new series managed to give me the slip. Given the suggestion of catching up, instead of my usual approach – which is to check the blurb – I just ploughed in. Funnily enough, that’s pretty much the advice that is given in Ceej’s review of #1. Within a few panels I was sitting questioning what the heck I was reading… I don’t think I’ve felt this kind of unease reading a comic in a long time; it was glorious! Probably a 5/5 from me.

So, does this new series hold up moving into issue #2?

After the cliff-hanger of the first issue, we’re brought back to mundane reality. The story jumps to a conversation between Aisha and her doctor about how her medication might be causing her sleep troubles and ‘visions’. Campbell and Villarubia maintain their form with the quick shifts from the muted colours of the real to the all too vivid and gruesome apparitions that plague Aisha’s building. Creating tension in a horror film is difficult enough when you have the benefit of a complimentary musical score, but to be able to do so in a comic takes real talent, and yet the team here seem to do it with ease.

As for progression in the plot, Pichetshote feeds more of the background and introduces additional residents of the building. Here though the bulk of this issue felt like it was straying too close to cliché. Maybe it’s cognitive bias but there’s an apparent spate of horror with strong female leads questioning their sanity and seeing things no one else can see. Still, the scenes play out with an uncomfortable realism which elevates this above some dialled-in haunted house story. The switch of pace and crescendo at the end of this issue leaves goosebumps. Just don’t read this in a dim room by lamplight…

Everything in this just seems to work so well building on all the strengths exhibited in the first issue. The last few panels leave some pause for concern as to how this will play, out but then isn’t that all part of the enjoyment?

Rating: 4/5.

[PREVIEW ARTWORK]