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Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: May 4th, 2016.
Written by: Paul Tobin
Illustrated by: Juan Ferreyra
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A 'get you up to speed' intro tells us that Declan and Reece are recovering from their last adventure where they took on Swivel unaware that Swivel's death allowed Nimble Jack to resurrect. Since coming back, Jack is able to zip back and forth between Boston and 'The Hungry World' where he is hoping to rally the agents of darkness to join him in an attempt to do away with Declan for good.
This storyline begins in a park where a homeless man sits with some pigeons. Jack approaches him and sits down and tells him his own story - the man's name is David Brisson and the reason he's homeless is because his wife kicked him out after she caught him having an affair with a barista. Jack tells him he knows who is after him but before he tells him, he prances off through the park. And then the pigeons start talking to David. All of them. At the same time.
Somewhere else, Declan and his girlfriend are grocery shopping. They're surprised when a pigeon flies into the store but that doesn't stop them from going out for a bite to eat - but again, they're surprised when a pigeon flies into the restaurant.
In The Hungry World, Jack is talking to pigeons and monsters and whoever or whatever else will listen to him. He heads back to Boston and opens up a woman's head to put a pigeon inside. 'Help the sane.' He, along with a doppelganger, essentially unleash chaos. As Declan and his significant other discuss his past, Jack befriends a young woman named Cassandra, chatting her up in her room as she tries to drown out the sounds of her parents fighting but listening to music. After that, he heads into The Hungry World and gives a pep talk…
When the second issue opens, Declan opens the door to his apartment but doesn't see anyone. That's a problem, because it allows Jack to basically slither in unnoticed. He and his lady, Reece, figure it's the kids down the hall screwing around. Declan goes back to his laptop to research prosthetics while Jack goofs off all around them - but they can't see him flipping about and juggling birds.
Young and in love, they head to the bedroom but Declan notices something odd… the light he just turned off keeps turning bac on. They figure the switch is acting up, they'll call the landlord in the morning. Jack just watches and laughs to himself. The next morning when she hits the shower she forgets her brush. She asks Declan for it and gets what she asked for, but he never got up from the table where he was sipping his morning coffee. The head out into the city for a walk, talking about past events - should Declan go to counselling? She thinks it would help, he's not so sure. Declan Thomas is in the past, Declan Barton is in the now and he's a good man. She loves him.
She heads to work, he to check out prosthetic options for his fingers. Jack, meanwhile, asks a homeless man to watch a pigeon for him… while he pours bleach down the poor bastard's throat. Growing more powerful, Jack is able to turn the taste of his insanity into little treats, the kind you can feed to stray dogs and that make those stray dogs just as nuts as he is.
Chaos ensues. Jack smiles. A little girl named Edith gets dragged down into the sewers, into a different world completely. And then Jack shows up at Reece's office and the pigeons arrive en masse.
Declan and Reece are booking it through the park as fast as they're able, birds behind them at every step. They hop in a cab unsure of what they've just seen, just experienced. They run into their building, birds above them, birds all around them, and take the elevator upstairs to their apartment. Afraid that Jack will follow them, they lock the doors and all the windows and then notice a new door in the kitchen, one that wasn't there when they left, on that goes into an outside wall.
As the apartment fills with pigeons, they notice a doorbell. It rings, and then someone on the other side knocks. Just then, Jack shows up, opens the door… and let's himself in. Reece puts a butcher knife through his head but it doesn't do any good. Jack stuffs a pigeon in Declan's mouth and leads them on a tour of their new room. They look down on the world through a hole in the floor, Jack calls the world below his kitchen… for snacks. And then he builds Declan some new fingers.
Jack tells them he's going to be their new roommate, at least until he decides that its' time to eat them.
They run into a small boy that Reece knows for her work, she was his nurse. He tells them that they'll grow colder. Again, not a good omen. The dogs arrive and take the boy, they hurt him, and then they see a small girl pulling a massive concrete block on a chain, squashing the pigeons underneath it that lay in its wake, the same pigeons that utter the word 'COLDER' over and over again. The girl is chained to the block and they try to free her, but Jack shows up, telling them that inside this giant rock is all the insanity that Declan ever cured. He tells them it's delicious and the little girl starts screaming, asking Declan to kill her. Jack runs off, sporting a lobster bib, and the girl gets back to what she was doing. More pigeons die, and more pigeons repeat 'COLDER' over and over again. Declan takes Reece home and decides he's going to find a way to end this.
Jack, on the other hand, heads to a drug store and fills a woman's mouth with pills. She dies, and he eats. It's at this point that Declan realizes what he has to do to beat Jack - he has to starve him. But will it work? We'll leave it at that and not spoil the big finish.
It's clear from the start, Hell, it's even stated in the opening text, that this time around Jack is going to do his damnedest to take Declan out of the picture. If that involves rallying troops in both the real world and the Hungry World, it would seem he has no problem with that. Based on their past together and based on Jack's mental state this isn't such a surprise. We kind of knew it was coming. Where the tension in this first issue stems from is how he'll do it and what exactly Declan can to do prevent it, if anything.
This five issue mini-series has some nice moments of contrast. Scenes where Declan enjoys some moments of calm domestic bliss (wherein he basically sums up his past with 'I don't want to talk about it') are juxtaposed against scenes where Jack is running around tearing peoples' heads off or throwing women in front of fast moving buses. It's a good way to hold our attention and to keep us flipping those pages - you don't really know where it's going to go. Those pigeons though… they're definitely up to something. They're appearing in places they wouldn't normally appear and, well, they're talking. That's not right. Pigeons don't talk. Or do they? Nice job on Tobin's part here grabbing our attention and ensuring in the first chapter that we're going to check back in to find out how all of this gets resolved.
The series' macabre mix of horror and the darkest humor works really well, it keeps us equal parts intrigued, amused and thoroughly disgusted. Jack is clearly insane and is written as such, and his actions here are as bizarre as they are unexpected. At the same time, the story is smart enough to give us some solid character development as we learn more about the strength in Declan and Reese's relationship that keeps them together even in times as trying as this. It's sweet, actually, and a nice touch of warmth in amidst all the horror.
Anyone familiar with the series already knows that Juan Ferreyra's art is gorgeous. This issue sees him continue that trend. With color assists from Eduardo Ferreyra he creates a fantastic style that is as beautiful as it is morbid and grotesque. There's a lot of great detail not just in the way that the characters are illustrate but in the backgrounds as well and he does a great job of creating a creepy sense of skewed movement when it comes to showing how Jack goes about his business. He also does a fine job with the creature design and somehow manages to make pigeons look scary. Nicolas Brondo and Eduardo Ferreyra are credited with ink and color assists, and the three are doing great work here, every page of every issue so far has looked fantastic.
In addition to reprinting the five issues of the mini-series, this trade paperback edition also includes some images and notes from Ferreyra's sketchbook that are interesting to see. Paul Tobin contributes some additional writing in the back of the book in the form of a series of 'patient reports' for Jack Clevers called 'What Nightmares Do Monsters Have?'Great stuff - if you didn't pick up the five issues individually, check out this collected edition. If you're at all into horror comics, this should make you very, very happy indeed.
