Although this series is a fan favorite, it is also one which has often seemed to take the easy way out in terms of its story telling.  It often relies on a sequence of one liners and fairly generic supernatural bad guys.  Beneath it all are two main characters who have the potential to be a lot deeper but for whom that attention is rarely given.  It has happened a little bit as Robyn has opened up to her therapist, or as Marian has opened up to her girlfriend, but mostly this series has been one full of unrealized potential as it focuses more on the gore of the supernatural than it does on the characters themselves.  Although there have been glimpses before, the series has generally followed them with other poorer examples to follow, and the level of consistency in this series is thus hard to grasp, as it verges on something better, but never attains it.

If there is an issue where they might break from this trend, then this might be it.  Robyn and Marian are confronted at the beginning of the issue by the Rotter, the somewhat zombie like character that has been helping them out.  As they soon discover, his help was not completely altruistic, instead he is looking for help in return.  He has been cursed to live but to slowly rot away, and he simply wants the easy release of death after suffering for so long.  Instead of big scale, Robyn and Marian focus on small scale and it works well for them here as they are able to show their ingenuity as they hunt down reasons for what may have caused this curse.

What ends up following is what is by far the best issue in this series thus far.  Although there are still a few staples of what has made this series falter at times, they are mostly shuffled to the side as the first truly good story is told in this series, one which focuses on the characters first and the concept second, even when the concept is strong enough as well.  It may not have proven itself with just one issue, but the series seems to be on its way, a gamble from Zenescope which seems finally ready to pay off.

Story: Patrick Shand  Art: Roberta Ingranata
Story: 8.6  Art: 8.6  Overall:  8.6 Recommendation: Buy