While reading one of the pages of this issue, I felt that I had stepped into a time machine and was transported back to the 90’s. You know that scene where Kurt Kilgore is in a nearly full page spread, clad in a kevlar bodysuit with many pouches, runs towards the reader with big guns a-blazing and a war face with a gaping mouth? God, it was like I was reading an old issue of Cable. 

That aside, I kind of enjoyed this debut issue of of Haunt despite its flaws. These flaws, I think, fall squarly on the shoulders of Todd McFarlane’s premise and plotting for this overall series. It involves an amoral soldier of fortune named Kurt Kilgore, who was unjustly killed by his superiors, and can now posses his preist brother Daniel (who is also amoral) and turn into a SYMBIOTE SPAWN who is invincible and brutal. It’s a very silly 90’s Image premise that nowadays we make fun of, and since this is the introductary issue, this silly premise outshines any good the script or art does.

Everything else is fine, though. Even though the premise of this book is stuck in the Hootie & The Blowfish era, Robert Kirkman’s script doesn’t have that stilted sound and is compentantly written. I’m sure that his normally strong writting will help add some depth to the initial plot. Ryan Ottley’s art is also very good. It’s very bloody and dark, though we’ve seen Ottley shine with the ultra-violent scenes in Invinclible, and they’re equally as impressive here.

I know I’ve been ragging on the initial plot of Haunt, but even though it’s a bit harebrained, it makes for a very light and enjoyable read. I’m going to wait until the first arc is done to judge this series as a whole, but by the looks of this debut issue, it’s looking to be some brainless and bloody fun.