Mad Cave Studios; $4.99 

Jules is the only survivor of a killing spree perpetrated by a serial killer known as Hammer Head. It's been 20 years since that horrible event, and Jules is masking her trauma with drugs. When she gets arrested while feeding her habit, Jules is put into a weird facility. It seems like a normal mental health hospital, except for the fact that there are only a handful of patients/inmates. Her situation takes a very dark turn when Jules is forced to confront her past in the most brutal way possible. 

The first issue of Hammer Head drops several hooks into the water. It teases what Hammer Head did in the past, it hints at something big that Jules participated in, and makes it clear that the facility staff is up to something beyond treatment or incarceration.  

Writer Ed Brisson, artist Damian Couceiro, and colorist Dee Cunniffe reveal just enough about what happened in the past to pull the reader in. They don't give away too much that could ruin the impact later, but they also don't leave the reader frustrated, or worse uninterested, with too little information.  

It starts out as a story about what happens to the survivor after the slasher movie ends, then turns into a different kind of nightmare. We learn a little about the characters, and there's plenty of potential for a wild horror story tale and/or a psychological thriller about human nature and survival. Either way, I'm in. 

–Amanda Sheriff