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Witch Doctor: Mal Practice #3 Published by Image Comics Written by Brandon Seifert Illustrated by Lukas Ketner $2.99, 24 Pages
Infected with a Strigoi, Occult Physician Vincent Morrow is forced to make a deal with the people that got him sick to begin with. He's agreed to make a swap. In exchange for the cure, he has to give up the Pandoracopeia, a mystical book filled with all kinds of crazy and dangerous spells. Of course, nothing goes as planned, so a fight breaks out, but this isn't something that Morrow can get out of. Things get very complicated for him.
Mal Practice has been like a downward spiral for Morrow since it began. His situation continues to worsen as time goes on, but this issue takes it to new heights. He's broken in more ways than one. Everything that makes Vincent Morrow a strong, confident man is being systematically destroyed. Even his friends and colleagues are gone. All this and we're only halfway through the mini-series!
The villain behind this evil scheme is finally revealed. It's not someone that I've seen in the series before, so it didn't pack a punch initially. Fortunately, author Brandon Seifert works to connect the dots pretty quickly, explaining why this guy is worthy of your fear. He also harkens back to the bodies that Morrow examined in the first issue, tying those in to the main storyline and giving them more meaning.
When did golems become such a big thing in comics? I feel like they're the new zombies. These things are everywhere lately. I feel like they're a pretty obscure aspect of the supernatural, but they've been popping up in more and more titles. Did everyone read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and decide to toss in a golem for good measure?
As always, Lukas Ketner kicks all kinds of ass when it comes to the artwork in Witch Doctor. He draws a ton of new things, including the aforementioned golems and the villain and his accomplices. Each is more menacing than the last, creating some truly creepy images. I'm probably going to have nightmares thinking of the disgusting mosquito creature with root-like tendrils sitting below a woman's head. There's a large panel towards the end of the issue that produces a pretty big change in Morrow. I'm not spoiling it here, but Ketner illustrates this in such an organic way. When you find out what it is, it just makes total sense for the character and his current illness. He's representing the disease visually and in a way that I haven't seen before.
Vincent Morrow has been prepared for almost everything, but here he's come up against something he couldn't anticipate. Now what? I can't wait to find out.
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