By: Miguel Acedo

From the mind of Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson (The Secret, Cut, The Mask) and scripted by Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley comes the three-issue mini-series The Occultist. This supernatural tale finds college student Rob Bailey struggling to harness his new powers as the Occultist. The stakes are raised as he must defend himself against a bounty out on his head as Hit mages with unique magical abilities seek to destroy him.

Rob, as possessor of the powerful spell book known as the Sword, must thwart a serpentine demon known as the Swordbreaker and find the answers to the mystery behind the death of his former employer. On the case is Detective Melendez, a sultry woman that finds herself entangled in Rob’s life.

Although there is a cast of colorful characters, archetypes and somewhat stereotypical tropes at work here; Seeley’s witty dialogue is clearly the strongest storytelling convention functioning in this story.

The story structure would have be stronger had it not started in the present, flashback three days and have the story unfold and ultimately end at the point in which the issue started, thus rendering the first page of the story completely unnecessary. A weak gimmick.

The story also features generic character designs. Victor Drujiniu’s art can grow on you but it brought to life by Andrew Dalhouse’s colors. The color palette brings a dimensionality that is required for a story of this nature, but isn’t substantial enough to cover the lack of dimensionality of the story itself.

This is a series that gets off the mark and stales. Creatively, the magic is missing. It’s no use to have recognizable characters if they’re not relatable. This story and its characters make it hard on the reader to empathize.

If you like the supernatural written with blasé simplicity and the magic of a world not to be defined, or a story choke full of attractive women stereotypically characterized and hyper-sexualized, this is your book.

You can order a copy here: