THE UNWANTED

written by Diablo & Mark Michaels

illustrated by Juan Romera

lettered by Jason Arthur

ISBN-10: 0977016455

ISBN-13: 978-0977016457

published by Diablo Publications

 

reviewed by Adam Armstrong

09.07.2008

 

A fight between evil and… slightly less evil.

An ancient medallion that holds a terrible secret finds its way to an isolated juvenile detention center in the mountains. One of the teachers unwittingly releases a demon that feeds off fear, and human flesh apparently, that terrorizes the prisoners as well as the staff. It is up to a group of unwanted delinquents to stop the demon from killing them and escaping.

While the drawing is great and Juan Romera es muy talentoso; the writing and story aren’t very good whatsoever. The story is far from original; it’s basically a slasher story with a monster in it. The dialog is littered with such bombastic gems as: “We have only one choice… we must destroy her.” It seems like red-shirt characters and “bad” guys are the only ones to get killed. Yeah, I know that it’s a comic book and I’m being overly harsh but with such great comic book writers out there like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, and James O’Barr raising the bar others should follow suit and push the limits between genre and literary and between novel and graphic novel.

Overall with the elements combined it’s alright. I would like to see this team get together and throw out clichés, pushing for something strange and new.

2.5 out of 5