"Halloween Man: Beyond October" Comic Review

It seems like only yesterday that Solomon Hitch was brought back to life as the Halloween Man. With the power of the horror movie sequel coursing through his undead veins, Hitch has defended Solar City from all kinds of monsters over twenty years. To celebrate this legacy, creator Drew Edwards has assembled an impressive array of artists for a “jam issue”, setting up the character for what's coming next in his storied legacy.

In some ways, Halloween Man: Beyond October is like a victory lap, and a well-deserved one. Although the character has been around for twenty years, this book is pretty accessible to new fans looking to explore what this misunderstood monster is all about. If you have more experience with his adventures, you'll take more away from it as there are some callbacks to previous tales, but it's pretty open. I wish more comics were set up this way, complete with a brief introduction and recap to get anyone up to speed.

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The artwork is pretty varied throughout this book and for good reason. This doesn't totally work at times though, not because the art is bad; that's the farthest thing from the truth. It's just that the styles aren't necessarily compatible. We jump from clean pencils to rougher sketch-like forms from one scene to the next. This creates a jarring reading experience, as you don't know what you're going to get when you turn the page. Fortunately, the art is consistent within each scene, so there is a natural changeover between the illustrators.

You can't help but love the design of Halloween Man. He's literally half of a monster, with a scarred face – not unlike the Batman villain Two-Face – and a skeleton hand. His voice appears in neon green word balloons. He sports a jack-o-lantern t-shirt under a leather jacket. It's a look that has stood the test of time.

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While this brings up some elements from Halloween Man's past, it most definitely focuses on what's to come. This issue sets the stage for what I hope is another twenty years of monstrous adventures. There are all kinds of horror tropes and aspects from other genres and movies that can be pulled into Halloween Man at any moment, so there's certainly a lot of potential for this series to continue on for quite some time.

Halloween Man: Beyond October is currently available on ComiXology.