The Occultist # 4 by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton

Last Occultist issue we saw Rob, infatuated by a female witch named Luka, that loved to take risks. The Occultist is playing with forces he yet does not understand and putting himself and the world at risk. Detective Mendez had a magical accident and found out Rob might be in danger and we saw what really happened to Rob’s mentors.

The Occultist # 4, The Occultist is still in the land of the dead, playing with his new girlfriend, feeling the rush of being near death. He seems to gain knowledge of the people around him, but he still has not realize it is all a trap, and the mere mortal Detective Anna Mendez must rescue him ( with some help that is not pleasing to the eye). The Occultist is not ready to believe the truth, and the sword is failing due to his acts, but he must gain strength, mend what he broke and save his friends. Will he be able to stay as The Sword Keeper?

The story first goes with Charlie happy about his plan, I liked this because it makes the expectation of what is happening with Rob and Luka grows. We then go exactly where we left .The Occultist finding happiness while he is “high” in the verge of dead, already breaking a big rule as it is , makes us think about drugs, and it is something that is touched later by Luka, this magical travel has alway being to get high, to feel in nirvana , without thinking about the consequences it can have. They wanted their drug and they knew their souls ( literally) were at stake and still they kept doing it without any regards. Even when they said they were alive they felt dead already. We are in the land of the dead of course but in the other issues death itself has not come as an important element. I particularly found the part where Detective Mendez has to cross over with a memory very touching and real inside this fantasy/horror setting. I enjoyed the fight where the colors and the art were the protagonist, and the dead, how they progress more

Submitted for your approval…

Yeah, I know Rod Serling only used the phrase in about three episodes, but it’s become so synonymous with The Twilight Zone, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, for that matter, that it feels weird not seeing the phrase in a book entitled The Twilight Zone. But that’s an issue I’ll have to deal with along with a few others concerning this book.

Announced at San Diego Comic-Con, writer J. Michael Straczynski, at the behest of Dynamite’s CEO Nick Barrucci, has created a 12-issue run for The Twilight Zone consisting of three standalone, yet somewhat interconnected, arcs. The first arc concerns Wall Street Executive Trevor Richmond who commissions a shady man named Mr. Wylde, and his behind-the-scenes operations to erase his identity and make him a new man before his fraudulent activities are discovered and he’s sent to prison. Offered a single pill to start the process, Trevor is slowly rebuilt from the cells out with his new persona, Thomas Riley, fully formed just as the shoe drops on his company. Content that he’s managed to dodge the bullet and live out the rest of his life as a new man without a care in the world, Trevor, or Thomas, discovers that leaving an old life behind doesn’t mean it can’t be picked up by someone else.

The Twilight Zone is an interesting concept to put into the medium of comic books. The original television show ran from 1959-1964 with each half-hour episode, though the fourth season had a one-hour episode format, consisting of standalone stories that were only connected by the enigmatic narrator (Rod Serling) who essentially provided context by bookending the episode with brilliantly written prose about human nature, fear, vanity, the world at large, etc. It was a show steeped in Cold War mentality, highlighting major fears of the times or looking to the past through the lens of science fiction while forcing the audience to look long and hard at themselves in the process. One of the more more