Comic Review: The Empty Man (2018-) #1

The Empty Man (2018-) #1

BOOM! Studios

Writer: Cullen Bunn

Artist: Jesus Hervas

I was one of the lucky few who picked The Empty Man on its release in the summer of 2004. That comic introduced me to Cullen Bunn who has now planted his flag in the horror genre and inserted me into the hysteria that is The Empty Man. In its short six-issue run, readers were fully immersed in a world where The Empty Man had taken hold, and the FBI and CDC were working to handle this supernatural mystery. The original run followed Special Agent Monica Jensen with the FBI and Walter Langford with the CDC. These two were at the forefront of the investigation, and by the end, they were probably farther than they should have been and concluded the series open-ended.

Now The Empty Man comic series is back with a new artist, but the same great writer. We don’t know how much time has passed since the end of the first run, but The Empty Man is now a full-blown epidemic. Cullen Bunn spends a lot of time showing you the scope and magnitude of the disease. The two kids who returned at the end of the last run are now the face of the illness in the media. They were sent back to spread the message, and they seem to be doing just that. We get to meet new faces, but it is hard to see which ones will hang around through this new on-going series. From the final pages here, it seems like the story is about to take off and settle us back into where we were with the last series.

Cullen Bunn has done a lot of good work since he started The Empty Man; namely Harrow County and the current Cold Spots. Horror seems to be his home, and I am glad because I have a residence in horror as well and now grab everything with his name on it. He uses this issue to introduce some characters and mainly setup how much farther society has crumbled due to The Empty Man.

Jesus Hervas is a relative newcomer to the scene, and his work on Penny Dreadful should translate well to The Empty Man. Previous artist, Vanesa R. Del Rey, had a “courtroom sketch” style that grew on me, but I am enjoying what Hervas has shown us so far. He is similar enough to Rey’s style that it feels the same as the previous run.

Rejoice and be happy that Cullen Bunn has brought back The Empty Man. It was a story that was unfinished, and it seems Bunn is here to bring us a bigger story that hopefully includes a conclusion at some point. Bunn has stated that you don’t need to have read the first six issues in the original run to read this. I don’t agree entirely with that since characters show back up here and those previous six issues make a perfect prelude to this. I highly recommend this even if you can’t get your hands on the last run.