I just couldn't stay away from this Puppet Master series, even though I was originally going to do a bunch of different horror books on a schedule, this just cried to be reviewed....... or I cried to review it. Either way, this series has been really fun so far and I can't wait to get back into it. So for this Just For The Hell of It Mondays, we'll be continuing the adventures of our murderous puppets as they find out that their torment of being trapped within wooden bodies might not be as eternal as they originally believed. Let's check it out.
Written By: Shawn Gabborin
Art By: Michela De Sacco, Yann Perrelet
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 1, 2015
Do Unto Others
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
After having the previous story arc use elements of the first two films in the Puppet Master series, while adding an overall folklore to the sleepy town of Bodega Bay from all of the murders and disturbing stories that loomed over the town from the Inn on the hill.......... Well, I just can't wait to further my foray into this world because as a fan, this series is just knocking it out of the park. The story and the art have just been wonderful and I'm really interested in seeing what the creators have in store for us with this new story. Let's jump into this issue and find out.
Explain It!
Our story begins with a man preparing a meal for himself in an empty house....... Then Blade comes from out of nowhere and hooks into his eye and slashes his throat! Holy shit, that's one hell of a way to start an issue and that hook going in under the eye really freaked me the hell out. Anyway, now that the mood is set with that cold opener, we head back two days earlier to see how we eventually get to a guy with a hook in his damn eye. So we begin our tale with a man who may or may not be the hook eyed guy, the reason I'm not really sure is that these two men are very similar looking, but the guy from the cold opener seems to have longer hair. This will probably be all explained as the series goes on and I guess I really don't need to know who this guy is right now, the only thing I need to know is that this man goes to a local psychic for some help that apparently she's perfectly suited for. Besides for being a psychic that's very reminiscent of the characters from the first film, it seems that she specializes in transferring people into puppets. That's right, not only does this woman supposedly predict a person's future, but she offers them the ability to get out of their skin for awhile for whatever they need to do and in this case, it's all about getting vengeance on a cheating spouse.
Now I love this part because we see that Madam Adon has a closet full of puppets and dolls that she says are from all the masters, for her clients to choose from and I would love to know who these other masters are because she certainly has one of Andre Toulon's missing puppets Shredder Khan. We don't get any Shredder Khan action here though because since the client remarks that his wife has been bleeding him dry for years, he chooses a vampire doll to inhabit and again I really enjoy this part for what it brings to the series. Throughout the Puppet Master film series, we've seen multiple ways to animate inanimate objects and Madam Adon transfers her client's essence into the vampire doll a lot like we saw William Hickey playing Andre Toulon in the first Puppet Master do to revive Jester and since the rest of the series began using fluid reminiscent to Dr. Herbert West's "Re-agent" from Re-Animator, I like seeing that Gabborin is bringing this version of animation back to the story, but I also hope he explores all the ways we've seen the "magic" used. Well, the guy transfers to the vampire and does his murderous deed to his wife and her lover, then returns to Madam Adon to retrieve his body and all seems well with this transaction....... only thing is, we see that Blade was peeking in through the window during the deal.
In the end, Blade returns to the Bodega Bay Inn and relays the information to Andre Toulon inhabiting the Decapitron puppet...... in whatever way the puppets relay information to each other and Andre Toulon realizes that this just might be the chance they were waiting for to get out of the wooden bodies that they've been stuck in....... Well, since Andre put his friends in them. Madam Adon agrees to help them after they trek to her parlor, she only needs them to acquire bodies to inhabit and her payment for this deed is that she gets to keep the puppets when the deal is done. Well, the puppets scour Bodega Bay and find people that were like them in life and this part really intrigues me because all the puppets return with their new bodies, but Torch is late coming back. The reason this intrigues me so is because there's always been contention about who's essence inhabits Torch and things become really interesting when Torch returns to Madam Adon's parlor with the body of a woman. I just really love what Shawn Gabborin is doing with this series.
That's it for this issue of Puppet Master and this series is shaping up to be everything that I ever wanted in a Puppet Master comic series, if not what I've always wanted from the film series after 1994. We've got callbacks to innocuous things that the fans can appreciate without alienating newer fans to these pint sized terrors and all done without calling attention to it....... You're a smooth motherfucker Shawn Gabborin. The art in this issue is just as good as it was during the previous story arc and besides for my confusion about if the victim from the cold opener was the same guy who visits Madam Adon, I loved the whole thing. I really can't wait to see where this story goes and what Shawn Gabborin will go after next in trying to uncover all the dark secrets that this series has held.
Bits and Pieces:
Puppet Master continues to impress due to all the care that the creative team are putting into this series. Easter Eggs are thrown throughout this issue that the long time fans will definitely appreciate, while the story is interesting enough to captivate readers who aren't as familiar with the continuity as people who have spent the last twenty six years obsessing and loving these tiny terrors. While this issue is primarily set up, it does the trick in hyping up the rest of the story and I can't wait.
8/10
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