Regression #1 Review

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Danny Luckert Marie Enger
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: May 10, 2017
Cover Price: $3.99

It continues to be my shtick to go into these number ones knowing relatively nothing beforehand and it has sometimes been an absolute surprise. With Regression I knew nothing until finding out it was written by Cullen Bunn. I’ve been kind of mixed with what I’ve read of his, but nothing has gone too far positive or negative to have any real swaying effect going into this.

Right away if you are bothered by bugs or creepy crawly imagery, you might want to bail out now because this book starts off with it immediately. It’s creepy, it’s chilling, and damn is it effective.

We start with a vision of a naked woman being cut open to reveal a whole mess of insects and maggots. It’s revealed to be a vision of Adrian who comes off as an introverted loner who’s stuck at a party. When a friend embraces Adrian it startles him out of his vision but he begins seeing them more fused with his current setting rather than a separate vision all together. They manifest more as hallucinations at this point and it soon drives Adrian running through the house in search of a bathroom.

There’s not really much to comment on this early on as it progresses in a pretty fast pace. The art is honestly the only big thing to go on and it’s effectively creepy and sickening.

We later find out a woman, who follows Adrian through the house to check up on him, is a longtime friend. She suggests a friend who can help and at first Adrian refuses what he believes to be new-age healing methods, but eventually agrees to give it a shot. There’s some subtle character details given here, but I feel not enough to really grasp on to without making further assumptions. Is this a ‘friend-zone’ situation? The friend, Molly, asks if it’s drugs and says it’s what everyone else is thinking so does that mean drugs have been an issue before? We get the idea these two have been friends a while, Molly is likely the only reason Adrian is at this party, and that Molly has some kind of history with new-age healing practices. I like what’s here but it’s hard to tell if I’m assuming more than what’s intended.

They eventually end up at a comedy club where Molly’s friend is currently putting on a comedic hypnosis show.  Adrian seems once again not really down for the whole ordeal until he finds out in a huge breach of human decency the hypnotizing had already begun! Seriously, if this character has any untimely demise to follow him it is 100% warranted by me. Don’t just hypnotize a guy without consent. We end up seeing some things, along with Adrian we assume, that could either be from the past or future but ends up being a different brand of creepy.

After the hypnosis Adrian is under the assumption it hadn’t worked and is ready to leave before Molly informs him it did in fact work and he had been under already. From here he heads on and the book gets back into the creepy and weird territory.  Because the book is so fast paced and more visual in this first issue I’d rather leave the last bit unspoiled.

Overall I really liked what we got for a first issue. I do feel it is a little light in the way of plot and substance, but it more than makes up for it in some nice fast paced set up with an interesting twist. The only bad thing is with having less to go on I’m reminded of Phantasmagoria: Puzzle of Flesh, so I hope this book goes just as beautifully but maybe not as bad.

Bits and pieces:

A bit lacking in plot and substance, but it more than makes up with a fast and interesting read filled with creepy disgusting imagery.

8.5/10