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About DC Horror Presents #3
DC Horror Presents is a horror anthology mini-series where each issue includes a couple short stories that strike at the heart of the DC Comics universe.
“The Chthonian Dawn”
Writer: Francesco Francavilla
Artist: Francesco Francavilla
Colorist: Francesco Francavilla
Letterer: Simon Bowland
“The Brooding Public”
Writer: Patrick Horvath
Artist: Patrick Horvath
Colorist: Patrick Horvath
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Publisher: DC Comics
Release date: December 25th, 2024
DC Horror Presents #3 (of 4) Review:
Made up of two short stories, DC Horror Presents #3 continues in delivering on the horror and terror on the worlds of our beloved superheroes.
The first, The Chthonian Dawn, is a buried alive scenario in which Batman wakes up in a coffin and thinks back on the case he was working on. And, more specifically, how he got there. He remembers responding to an incident on a police scanner in which he arrives at a creepy lab before the police do. There he finds lots of dead bodies and as he searches through the lab’s records he comes across two grotesque trees shaped like humans.
Finding it hard to believe, he presses on until he finds a man who is in the middle of mutating into one of those trees. Batman’s horror is interrupted with the appearance of Abby Arcane, appearing on the other side of the glass, in an adjacent lab. She begins telling Batman that the dead are one with Asintmah and that she provides Asintmah with an extra ingredient so her trees could take over all living things. An unknown gas is released, knocking out Batman cold, as the cold haunting voice of Abby Arcane tells him to sleep.
Having now remembered the sequence of events which led to him being placed in a coffin he uses a micro-charge to explode his way out of the coffin. Emerging from the coffin, he’s surprised to find himself in the lower deck of a ship. Racing to above deck he comes across Abby Arcane once again. To his horror, Asintmah has taken over all of Gotham and is now starting to infect Abby. He’s too late.
Francesco Franavilla’s artwork and script are equally haunting. Thanks to surreal colours and malformed victims. Providing a Batman Gothic Horror story complete with its own brand of Lovecraftian mutation that is both quintessentially Batman with a no-win scenario but in its questioning of the beyond. Specifically, the terror that can erupt from the beyond. Which, in this case, is an entity controlling nature. If not, nature herself.
The second and last, The Brooding Public, starts off as what seems like a typical Adam Strange story. Which questions this idea of what would happen to a world unequipped to handle alien spores that Adam picks up on his intergalactic travels.
He’s then pulled back to earth where he finds the world is in a state of apocalyptic takeover. The streets are mostly empty and on top of the buildings are human beings with their heads split open and long tendrils emanating for them, reaching for the sky.
Adam doesn’t have long to react until a giant faced human breaks out to the top of one of the buildings, screaming in pain, before his head splits open and these work like creatures are erupt from the split head. Working in unison as they bond together to create the tendrils we saw earlier. Again, reaching toward the sky.
This moment of bizarro horror is then interrupted by Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Superman (head enlarged, who’s infected by the spores) who have some questions for Adam Strange. Did he cause this or is it just strange apocalyptic coincidence? We’ll never know because this is where the story ends.
Patrick Horvath’s artwork is a refreshing change and a remarkable juxtaposition to the dark and gothic-looking short story of Francesco Francavilla’s. Still within the vein of mutation and body horror, Horvath’s choice of colouring gives this story a Tromaville feel to it. While the inking, which is anything but heavy handed, adds an old school comic strip approach to the overall story. Incredible suitable for an incredibly fucked up story with just the right amount of mystery and intrigue. Cosmically terrifying in all the right areas.
My Kind Of Weird Score:
10/10
