Review – Come Into Me #4 (Black Mask)

Publisher: Black Mask Studios
Writers: Zac Thompson & Lonnie Nadler
Artwork: Piotr Kowalski
Colours: Niko Guardia
Letters: Ryan Ferrier
Release Date: 28th November 2018

It has been a very long wait but we’re finally at the 4th and final issue of what, for me, has been the best comic series of 2018. That’s not something I’m overstating, because out of all the incredible stories, both new and continuing that I’ve read this year, Come Into Me has had the biggest impact on me by a country mile.

In this fourth issue we reach the staggering, horrific, final struggle between Sebastian and Becky and… wow, just wow. They really don’t flinch from the horror or the trauma of just what lengths Becky will go to in order to survive. Even in the face of the stomach-churning metamorphosis/devolution that is taking place in Sebastian’s body, Becky fights for survival at the expense of her sanity, her soul and anybody and anything that gets in her way. Sebastian’s fight now is not just to save himself but to stop Becky and the denouement is heart stopping. I wasn’t expecting to be, but by the end of this issue I was an emotional wreck.

Thompson and Nadler haven’t pulled a single punch throughout this story and they continue to delive, panel after panel and page after page of truly disturbing horror. I can only reiterate my previous reviews of this title in stating that this is an incredible homage to David Cronenberg and David Lynch. The combination of surreal psychological and pure body shock is a hard one to balance, but they do it perfectly.

This is a dark, surreal, exploration of what it is to truly share everything with someone else and the horrific consequences of what could happen when you invite the wrong person into your head. It is also a very real commentary on how much of ourselves we share with complete strangers in a desperate search for approval, and as such certainly leaves you not so much considering what you share, but rather the things you wouldn’t or couldn’t.

Piotr Kowalski and Niko Guardia once again manage to turn Thompson and Nadler’s twisted dreamscape into a visceral and terrifying world that pulses and writhes as only a genuine tribute to Cronenberg could. While I’m used to reading horror comics with themes that disturb (Junji Ito, Josh Simmons, Charles Burns and of course Alan Moore being my go-to guys for truly disturbing), it has been a long time since the artwork of a comic on its own has unnerved me so absolutely. There are some genuinely beautiful panels that you could drown in here, but there are also some genuinely horrifying panels that make your flesh crawl.

As a unified creative team they have not missed a single step. Not one. They have delivered an increasing sense of dread and terror every issue and the artwork has been consistently staggering and horrific. If you haven’t managed to get hold of the single issues (and lord knows Black Mask’s somewhat erratic and eccentric approach to deadlines has made it challenging), then make sure to keep an eye out for the Trade Paperback due out in January 2019. I genuinely hope we get more stories from these guys in the future as this story has blown me away and they can only go from strength to strength.

Rating: 5/5.

The writer of this piece was: Mark Scott
Mark Tweets from @macoy_comicgeek ‏