The Slasher’s Apprentice #2 // Review
It’s generally not a good idea to bring a knife to a job interview. Riley isn’t eactly trying to be secretive about it, though. The knife in question is being held in a way that might suggest that it’s being offered to the person she’s interviewing with. There are complications, though. The interview hadn’t been planned. There’s no position available and the prospective employer in question...is a serial killer. Writer Justin Richards continues an interesting horror drama in The Slasher’s Apprentice #2. Artist Val Halvorson continues to give the psychological horror story clean lines and clearly-defined shadows. Depth is added to the page with the work of colorist Rebecca Nalty.
They say, “never meet your heroes.” Riley’s making that mistake, but she’s doing so on her own terms. And maybe they SHOULD say, “Never try to blackmail your heroes.” But at the outset, it really DOES look like Riley is getting away with it, which is odd considering the hero in question is a legendary serial killer. So it’s likely going to be kindd of a dangerous situation for the killer AND Riley and...well..everyone else involved. But what could possibly go wrong? Riley has been obsessed with this serial killer for a long time. There’s a lot of knowledge that goes into that kind of obsession. There’s a good chance that Riley had considered all of the possible dangers of trying to become a slasher’s apprentice.
Richards rides kind of a tight line between expressly defining everything and maintaining the mystery that’s going to make for a satisfying payoff once things start to get revealed. The fact that the slasher in question still hasn’t said anything by the end of the second issue is actually pretty clever. Reilly is the one saying everything, so the reader is getting the world of the story entirely from her dialogue from her perspective...and since she’s kind of a sociopath herself, it’s not likely to be a totally relaible vieew of the world outside, which could be fun to get into in future issues.
There is a BIT of stiffness in Halvorson’s delivery of physical action. This is fairly minor, though, as the script doesn’t call for graceful or balletic fight sequences. It’s an awkward murder brawl between a towering figure in a lion mask and a few college guys. It’s not going to look pretty. It’s going to look stilted. The crispness of Halvorson’s lines add to a sense of stark reality about the series that is amplified by the dark and muted tones of Nalty’s colors.
It’s all quite well put together for another satisfying issue. The real challenge moving forward is going to lie in maintaining the sense of mystery about the killer while delivering the kind of psych-emotional progression that works for the dramatic arc of the plot. As it is, Richards and company are doing a very respectable job of keeping it all balanced. If they can maintain their narrative equilibrium, the creative team could really have something here.
