Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Daphne Byrne #1 Review



CHOSEN

Writer: Laura Marks

Art: Kelley Jones
Colors: Michele Madsen
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 8th, 2020


It's 1886 in New York and young Daphne Byrne has just tragically lost her father. It's not spelled out what happened to him but the kids in her class, who mock her and bully her, say that it was disgraceful. Her mother's funds are low, their cook has left, they may have to sell their carriage, and Daphne may have to leave school. But one day her mother comes home with good news: she has spoken to him on the other side through a medium.

Daphne visits his grave every day and talks to him about everything going on in her life such as the swifts building a nest in her window, and she always leaves a rock on his stone. She likes the igneous rocks the best because "they're frozen fire". Daphne is a pretty smart cookie. And she's too smart for a medium.



Her mother takes her to see this medium, and when the medium is pretending to be possessed by her father, Daphne makes up a story about sneaking up to the roof and her father showing her where Regulus is in Orion's Belt. The medium says her father remembers and "Each time you see it, remember that I'm with you always", but Regulus isn't in Orion's Belt. The whole thing never happened.

Before they entered the medium's house, Daphne went to give a few coins to this creepy old homeless man with pure white eyeballs. He grabs her and says "You'll do nicely... he'll be right pleased..." and then let's go. I'm assuming "he" is the goth kid in her dream that we  meet.



In this dream that she has that night, she "wakes up" in the cemetery by her father's grave. The rocks that she leaves on his stone now look like shrunken heads. This goth kid that kinda looks like Klarion the Witch Boy is there and he lures her down the stairs of a tomb until she gets to the bottom where there are a bunch of muscular zombies screaming her name. Goth kid says that she can see her father but there's something she needs to do first. Suddenly they're in a bright red room. Around a table there are pigs sitting down in chairs, wearing human clothing. At the center of the table is a tied up piglet. In her hand is a knife. Goth kid tells her "We all have to kill things. We do it so we can live... and then we grow to love it."

Bits and Pieces


There are parts of this that I did enjoy. I like how the art gets pretty creepy at times, that Daphne is a science geek dressed up like Wednesday Addams, and how she gives false information to a medium to prove she was a phony. But I didn't really care for the story, especially when the dream starts. Yeah, I know it's the first issue but it doesn't have the appeal or captivating storytelling that the first issues of the other Hill House books have had. It leaves me not really caring about what's happening or who this goth kid is. Sure, I'd like to know what happens next (if only to see if it gets better), but I'm not going to be eagerly awaiting the publication of the second issue.

5.5/10

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