Written by: Betvin Géant
Art by: Kay
Publisher: Ether Comics
This is a story of a mental patient named Michael, a young man with a strong religious upbringing whose strong beliefs land him in the psychiatric word of the Golgotha Hospital. Golgotha is of course, the name of the site where Jesus was crucified. The first issue comes out of the gate swinging with just enough back story to let us know where this character comes from. Micheal’s parents raised him with a strong biblical upbringing which has led to a lot of frustration in his life as he tries adamantly to live literal biblical interpretation. We see this reach it’s fruition as he plucks his own eye out to avoid lusting after cute girl in the ward with him.
This backfires as the hospital immediately rushes him into surgery and manages to put the eye back in. Micheal is not pleased, but now has a gnarly scare on his eye which makes a cool visual for a comic anti-hero/villain, so we win. It’s shortly after this that Micheal has a freak out in the psychiatrists office in one of the biggest missteps in the comic. His doctor is unaware of the scripture which led to the eye incident. Giving the nature of Micheal’s psychosis, it’s strange his psychiatrist is unfamiliar with why Micheal would do these things. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and say that it could be the staff at the hospital are written to be incompetent.
In the end of the first issue we see Satan use an electrical storm to torture poor Micheal whose going through a form of shock therapy. Micheal begs for it to stop, saying he’ll do anything. Satan holds him to his word as we start off issue 2 and Micheal begins to fulfill the titular role of the comic. I’m always interested in depictions of Satan in popular culture, with the version in The Adventures of Mark Twain being a personal favorite. The Satan we have here is a rather eloquent guy with menacing teeth dressed in a three piece suit. We’ve seen this before which is fine, this comic isn’t going to re-invent the wheel or anything, but it entertains. The inclusion of Satan takes away from the ambiguity of Micheal’s illness; we can’t pretend the dude’s delusions are solely his own making when he’s being brought back from the dead by the Lord of Darkness. We’ve seen similar stories before.
What does set this comic apart is it’s citing of actual Biblical scriptures from various translations. It’s almost like Chick Comics mixed with EC Comics. I’m not sure if this is parodying religious beliefs or if it’s just a cheesy horror yarn but as a Christian and a horror fan it manages to blend two of my favorite things together without insulting me on a personal level. Also, the artwork is amazing. There is a panel in the first issue where the whole thing is done inside of a pentagram, and it looks almost like a stain glass window. They did some really beautiful work here on this comic, and I hope it find’s it’s audience.
The first of its ten issues launch on May 20th, and the second a week later on the 27th. You can find out more about this comic it on it’s website.
