Comic Review: A Walk Through Hell #7

A Walk Through Hell #7

Aftershock Comics

Writer: Garth Ennis

Artist: Goran Sudžuka

Much to everyone’s surprise, A Walk Through Hell is a comic featuring lots of religious themes and also offering socio-political commentary, something Garth Ennis definitely hasn’t done before. That being said, A Walk Through Hell is a brilliant horror comic about two FBI detectives sent to investigate the disappearance of two agents in a warehouse, and how it ties into a horrific case from their past.

A Walk Through Hell stands as one of Garth Ennis’ more mature comics, scrapping his signature gross-out-style humor and over the top action sequences found in many of his books for a subtler horror story. As this series goes on the plot gets more and more intriguing, and this issue, in particular, holds an interesting revelation about the nature of the villain and the events transpiring. Despite this issue consisting mainly of a conversation between agents Shaw and McGregor and the series’ main villain, it still manages to maintain a tight sense of terror and suspension, answering questions from previous issues and then immediately causing the reader to ask more. Interspersed with this is a flashback to the two agents having a conversation about identity politics that has been ongoing between them throughout the flashbacks in this series, which, thanks to Ennis’ excellent characterization of these characters, actually feels like a genuine conversation between two people and not a writer using a comic as a soapbox.

Where some characters in his books are representative of his own views, Shaw and McGregor come across as people independent of whatever thoughts Ennis has on a subject, and their personalities are incredibly clear and contrasting, which helps create an interesting dynamic between the two. In addition to this, the series’ main villain is another fantastically written character, utterly creepy and chilling despite his outwardly normal appearance. The dialogue for all the characters in this book is impeccably written, as is to be expected from Garth Ennis.

Goran Sudžuka’s art and I’ve Svorcina’s colors are a beautiful pairing. Sudžuka is great at capturing the creepiness of the strange church much of this issue takes place in and is able to convey subtle character expressions very effectively with his art style.  Sudžuka also excels at creating the stomach-churning material a book like this requires. It’s not the most horrific imagery ever seen, but it’s still somewhat disturbing to look at. Svorcina’s colors are a huge asset, opting for a blue-centric palette for the church sequence that makes the panels look eerie and otherworldly. while on pages focused on director Driscoll’s wandering through the warehouse, the contrast between the light of her torch and the impenetrable darkness around her creates a sense of unnerving claustrophobia.