Customer Reviews

Strange Embrace Volume 1

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Strange Embrace is written by comic book jack-of-all-trades (he pencils, he inks, he draws, folks!) David Hine, who gave us some great X-Men oriented books (like The 198, District/Mutopia X (itself one of the more unique X-Universe titles), Son of M and its sequel Silent War, Civil War: X-Men (IMO, one of the few dusty spots in a brilliant career of mutant madness)), and Spider-Man: Noir (probably the best Spidey yarns I've read in ages).

As Spawn showed us, his real forte is writing horror titles as he kickstarted one of Image's longest running titles, Spawn, and this particular tale, Strange Embrace, is pretty much entirely by him. This hardcover collects all 8 issues, which were already published here stateside in black and white awhile back. It's the coloring that lends some atmospheric creepiness to an already great book, though.

This book centers around Alex, a mysterious stranger with telepathic abilities; Sukumar, a grocery delivery boy; and Anthony Corbeau, an elderly man with dark secrets that Alex is renting a room from. Alex has innocent Sukumar eat some mushrooms, and then introduces him to some ghosts of his deceased parents and an old boarding house schoolmate, while leaving open the question of whether the experience is real or false. Alex then settles into the real meat of the story, the mysteries of Corbeau and the fate of his wife, who commited suicide years prior. As Alex uses his formidable powers and communing with spirits, he puzzles out a larger, terrible reveal on the house of Corbeau. It's all tied together with really nice indie art, and storytelling as we learn the depths of depravity the Corbeau family is capable of. Yes, there are pretty big depths, there.

This book is best read in one sitting, and perhaps even reading it again afterward. Highly recommended.

this book is a very dark and moody horror story. edgar alan poe style maybe?
the hardcover version is in color and it looks great. you get a couple of short stories as bonus and these shine as the book itself. i was realy amazed how te author can write excellent horror story in 4 pages.
too bad this guy now draws x-men and commercial stuff.