I have always been a huge Spawn fan... but not a big Todd McFarlane fan. So I sat back waiting to hear the buzz on his newest product: "Haunt". But it has been a year since the series debut and I have heard little to nothing. So with a little cash in hand I decided to go pick up Volume 1 (which showcases issues 1-5) and give it a shot!
CHARACTER ORIGINALITY:
First off "HAUNT" in theory and story seems to be a unique character. The basic idea being that Father Daniel Kilgore (a lonely miserable associate priest)has a Brother (Kurt) that is some kind of secret agent, assassin, black ops whatever guy who is killed. Daniel however keeps seeing and hearing his brother warn him of the danger that his death has placed Daniel and Amanda (One time lover of Daniel and now widow of Kurt)in. One night while arguing about whether or not Daniel should even be listening to Kurt's "Ghost" Two armed men bust through the door and start shooting. Kurt instinctively jumps in front of his brother and the trauma causes them to mesh together into a "Symbiot" covered Haunt.
Daniel now has two voices in his head (Daniel and Kurt) and they both have equal control over the body.
Now with that being said there are alot of similarities to other comics within this character. I see flashbacks to Venom... Spawn... and even Firestorm?!
But my problem with the character's originality isn't his borrowing from other characters... I think he formed a decent story from other inspirational characters and that's fine but then we have to move on to:
CHARACTER APPEARANCE:
This characters appearance screams Anti-Venom! Which is somewhat ironic considering everyone's claim that Spawn was simply a Venom rip off. Even worse in the McFarlane covers he reeks of Spiderman poses (his "Ghost suit" even resembles Spidey's webs in some of them).
STORY:
So far the story is somewhat intriguing. The characters are (somewhat) believable and the story does have a way of pulling you in. Though I will say that the way issue five ended felt like the end of a bad B-Movie.
OVERALL:
I would have to say that overall I will probably continue to read Haunt for a while to see where the story goes but I have absolute low expectations for the rest of the series. I guess I just expected more from the talent that brought us Spawn, and The Walking Dead put together on a project.
CBM ASSASSIN RATING:
Two out of Five Guns