Witch Hunter #1 (Monarch – Ferrante / Scott / Dominicis) – “Witch-Hunts aren’t about hunting witches, they never were”, these are the words that open up the book, offering a foreshadowing theme into the Witch-Hunter world. As far as story goes, Witch Hunter has two levels of plot, and Vincent Ferrante is able to adequately mix the two. On the headlining epic “big picture” level, Witch Hunter is about a mystic figure out to save the world from dark forces trying to drain all of the magic out of it. We follow the Hunter as he fights the good fight in the past, gets cornered and trapped and then through the saving spell of a fellow follower of light has his soul brought three hundred years to the future into modern day where the battle against the darkness still wages. This “big picture” plot is dark and serious, juxtaposing that is the issue or episode story. In that aspect it reminds me of some ongoing sci-fi serial, you have the ongoing plot intermixed with the week’s self-contained plot. In issue one the issue plot deals with Witch Hunter helping a family whose daughter was abducted by demons… as it turns out the daughter was part of a deal for immortality and is being forced to work as a “working girl” for a demonic inter-dimensional madame. At this level, the book is much more light hearted in both content and dialogue (seeing Medusa in fishnets will do that to you). Hunter saves the girl and finds the real villain who made the deal for the girl’s life. Farrante does an expert job of mixing humor and sober drama, in this way it’s reminiscent of the writing that happened on M*A*S*H. The art that is attached to this book is less impressive than the story. The splash pages and “posing” shots are good enough, but anytime there is some sort of action sequence… the details are lost. It’s almost as if the “camera” is too close for the reader to take in what’s going on. Overall, Witch Hunter is a good find even though there is room for improvement.
Grade: B
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