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A review by haveloved
MANIAC OF NEW YORK by Elliott Kalan, Mike Marts
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I had been meaning to get to this as it came out and did not (thanks, pandemic brain) and since I just grabbed the first issue of volume 3 today given Aftershock's financial woes, I figured now was the time. (Also, having watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre the same day, sometimes you just have an unstoppable killer kinda day, you know?)
To repeat Kalan's own inspiration for the series, he wrote a story delivering on what he felt was the lost promise of Jason Takes Manhattan, creating a world where a superhuman killer has started going on killing sprees in New York City and, well... everyone has just gotten used to it. In a world where Maniac Harry sightings are as commonplace as the daily traffic report, task force leader Gina and disgraced detective Zelda work together to try and stop Harry when he sets his sights on killing everyone on New York's first fully automated subway.
I appreciated that every lead character in the story, Harry aside, was a woman, and thankfully I can trust Kalan not to pull a "she breasted boobily" in his writing (Mutti's art is also non-objectifying!). The characters might be a bit stock, but having watched a prototypical slasher film the same day I read this, I can readily accept that as part of the genre trappings. Many before me have remarked on how Kalan nailed the tone of malaise and apathy the world at large developed to crises even before the pandemic (I particularly enjoyed the one well-deployed swipe at a childish president). After the last few years, the cynicism is more than earned.
My one complaint is probably more of a me thing than a bad thing; while the pacing is great, it being such an action-heavy title meant that I often reached the end of each issue so quickly I was like "huh, that's it?" I sometimes wished the story didn't have to hurtle along quite so quickly, and it ends on a huge sequel hook rather than a resolution. But given that the sequel series are already available to me, I intend to read those posthaste and it isn't a huge deal. I really enjoyed this and it also made me more interested in other titles by the publisher, so I think it achieved its goal for sure.
To repeat Kalan's own inspiration for the series, he wrote a story delivering on what he felt was the lost promise of Jason Takes Manhattan, creating a world where a superhuman killer has started going on killing sprees in New York City and, well... everyone has just gotten used to it. In a world where Maniac Harry sightings are as commonplace as the daily traffic report, task force leader Gina and disgraced detective Zelda work together to try and stop Harry when he sets his sights on killing everyone on New York's first fully automated subway.
I appreciated that every lead character in the story, Harry aside, was a woman, and thankfully I can trust Kalan not to pull a "she breasted boobily" in his writing (Mutti's art is also non-objectifying!). The characters might be a bit stock, but having watched a prototypical slasher film the same day I read this, I can readily accept that as part of the genre trappings. Many before me have remarked on how Kalan nailed the tone of malaise and apathy the world at large developed to crises even before the pandemic (I particularly enjoyed the one well-deployed swipe at a childish president). After the last few years, the cynicism is more than earned.
My one complaint is probably more of a me thing than a bad thing; while the pacing is great, it being such an action-heavy title meant that I often reached the end of each issue so quickly I was like "huh, that's it?" I sometimes wished the story didn't have to hurtle along quite so quickly, and it ends on a huge sequel hook rather than a resolution. But given that the sequel series are already available to me, I intend to read those posthaste and it isn't a huge deal. I really enjoyed this and it also made me more interested in other titles by the publisher, so I think it achieved its goal for sure.