Broken Frontier

Kristy Cotton and her group of Harrowers investigate the whereabouts of a carousel toy that ends up being just like the infamous puzzle box. Hellraiser has been absent from comics for over five years, and now that Pinhead has returned with a plan to escape Hell, Barker aims to refresh his signature brand while attempting to offer up a new spin on the franchise.

The notion that Pinhead would want to inhabit a human body simply because he tires of his current role in Hell comes off as a little forced, but now that his plan begins to unfurl, the how proves to be more interesting than the why. After receiving a mysterious tipoff about the carousel from Pinhead’s lackey, Kristy and co. sit around discussing whether it’s a trap they ought to spring. The conversation’s flow becomes clunky as four different characters chime in with different points of view, and it quickly decays into a visual bore as almost three whole pages are devoted to talking heads.

Luckily, events escalate when the Harrowers break into a house wearing ski masks, tie up a family, and threaten to kill them if they move. And to think these are the good guys! When the team uncovers the carousel, it brings forth two insectoid monsters that are a refreshing sight given they are not yet another leather-clad Cenobite obsessed with facial piercings. It’s not long before hooked chains launch all over the room and a fight breaks out. During the encounter, Kristy somehow cuts through a chain with a dagger, but in the horror genre logic matters little so long as some people get impaled by the hooks, and they do.

All of this goes down in dark, gritty pencils reminiscent of a horror movie being played out on a grainy VHS tape – and that’s a good thing. Manco creates a moody atmosphere that fully embraces the terror unfolding on the pages, but there are a few instances where characters become lost under the heavy use of black, which is a shame given their usual high detail.

Despite problems with the dialogue or art, Barker delivers a product that will please fans of his long-running horror franchise, but with such heavy references to his past work, a new reader would be hard-pressed to jump on board.