Phantom On The Scan #1

Phantom On The Scan #1

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Mark Torres

Lettered by Dave Sharpe

Twenty years ago, a comet fell to earth. Since that night, Matthew has been haunted – haunt-ed by a spirit that gives him incredible psychic abilities. But these abilities come with a price...and payment is due.

Every time Matthew uses his gifts, he draws closer to death, and other psychics – all of whom gained their powers on the night the comet fell – are dying in the most horrible of ways. To save himself, Matthew gathers a group of psychics to solve the mystery of their powers before it’s too late.

Okay this is creepy as hell and not something I probably should have read at 11:30pm but I did and I think I may have nightmares now. But then again this is what Cullen does and he does it oh so well too, create these twisted dark stories that come out of nowhere and freak you out, usually in the best of ways. This one is different than I’ve seen and for that I’m incredibly thankful because the originality and uniqueness int this is what sets him apart from others who write in the same genre.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The opening, wordless, is almost ambiguous in what it represents though we know its the night that the comet fell to earth setting off the chain reaction. It does precisely what it is supposed to do and that’s capture our attention so that we want to see more. The entire issue has this series of events that unfold before us and leave us with so many questions that only time will tell if they get answered. The character development is interesting and while the dialogue is always good it’s really how we see the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances that really define who they are. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and introducing us to the characters and this world we’re drawn into this like we’re in the horror film unable to act like we think we would.

The interiors here are absolutely stunning! The linework we see is crisp, clean and tight that along with the varying weights and techniques that we see being utilised create some glorious detail work. There’s style and creativity in what we see that can go from mundane to extraordinary in the blink of an eye and it’s this that sets the styling apart from most others. The way that we see the composition within the panels almost, I said almost because it can truly do this, negates the need for backgrounds. However, we do still get some great depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellously talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is crazy and how we see the various hues and tones within the colours, even the blacks, utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is hauntingly beautiful.

​

With how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and sometimes lay there to be picked up at a later date, hopefully since he was just doing as he was told, add those complexities to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves everything forward is magnificently done. The idea is great and with a cliffhanger ending like this one what comes next is anyone's guess but suffice it to say that the doc’s got a lot answer for and Matt’s time is running out fast to get answers even with his little helper.