Review: House of Whispers #18
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writers: Nalo Hopkinson and Dan Watters
Artist: “Domo” Stanton
Colors: Zac Atkinson
Letters: AndWorld Design
Reviewed by: Tony Farina
Summary
House of Whispers #18 finds that the Corinthian has been shattered into thousands of pieces, each one infecting an acolyte of Erzulie, turning their whispered prayers to her into incantations of horror! It falls to Erzulie to pull every one of those shards together and reassemble the Corinthian…but the problem with reassembling him is that, well…then the Dreaming’s worst nightmare is back, and very, very angry!
Positives
Holy Crap. That cover by Marcio Takara is simply terrifying and beautiful.
I can’t ever fault Domo Stanton. Once again, he is the best thing about this story. As it winds and twits and adds even more new characters, Stanton, remains steadfast. He is the reason we may care about these new characters. His final few pages with Erzulie and the Corinthian are simply stunning. I don’t have those pages to show you, but I do have some excellent examples of his character driven work that inspires us all to care about art and support artists.
Negatives
Look it isn’t that I don’t like these characters, it is that I don’t think I should. Two new people were dropped in and while I find their story compelling, I also know that I am not to be fooled. This book, and I keep saying it, just doesn’t know what it wants to be. We spent the first year with Maggie and LaToya and then we just move away from them for other skin bags who will, most likely be possessed or manipulated or worse. The lead of this book should be Erzulie, but she has been bashed around so much that I don’t even know who she is anymore, nor do I suspect she does. I just really dislike how she has been treated in this series. Here you have a book that could be lead by a strong, female and she is fridged from the jump, killed, beaten repeatedly. It is just off putting.
Verdict
While House of Whispers is always stunning to look at, it more and more painful to read. The Corinthian and before him Ananse have felt shoehorned in to keep readership up. I am not sure if it is working. I will keep on keeping on because this issue ends with a bang. Maybe something good will come. I have been pleasantly surprised before.
