Comic Book Review: The Chill story by Jason Starr, art by Mick Bertilorenzi
It’s 2009 in New York City and a series of bizarre ritual killings has hit the city. The obvious suspect is a woman named Ariana who’s been seen with more than one of the victims, but no one can agree on a description of her beyond that she’s extremely attractive. Police Detective Pavano is approached by an Irish cop from Boston, Martin Cleary, who has met the killer before. Or so he says, but his wild tale about something called “the chill” is just too much to buy. Right?
This horror-tinged noir tale was part of the “Vertigo Crime” label for DC Comics. As such, it’s aimed at “mature” readers who enjoy hard edges in their illustrated crime stories.
It seems that Martin Cleary was Ariana Flaherty’s first victim back in the 1960s when they tried to have premarital sex in Ireland. Her ability to draw the heat out of a victim almost, but not quite killed him. Ariana’s father Cormac tried to finish the job with the Triscele, the Triple Death but Ariana hid his location. Cormac forced his daughter into a series of sacrificial killings to gain magical powers including not aging, changing appearance at will, and invisibility. Martin meanwhile emigrated to America.
When Martin saw the news about the killings, he realized from the trappings what was up and came to help. Detective Pavano isn’t convinced he wants this kind of help as most of Martin’s story sounds like something out of a bad fantasy novel. It also doesn’t help that the FBI has decided to get involved.
Martin tracks down experts on Celtic sacrifice, one of whom turns out to be far too close to the case. Cormac and Ariana continue their sacrifices as Cormac gets more desperate to kill off any possible threat to his plans.
Since this is noir, there’s a nasty twist at the end.
Most of the characters are some level of jerk or slimeball. Most of the murder victims and near-victims are way too ready to drop trousers, though it’s a plot point that Pavano is faithful to his wife.
The plot is uncomplicated; the protagonists and antagonists swiftly begin converging on each other, interrupted by the need to perform ritual killings or get exposition.
One nice bit thanks to Ariana’s powers is that the artist gets to draw multiple women who aren’t just redraws of the same look with different hairstyles. The tension rackets nicely over the course of the story.
Content note: Male and female nudity. Onscreen sex (no genitals), much of it rape by deception. Gore and mutilation. Animal death, briefly. A Catholic priest is revealed to be a pedophile. Cormac is emotionally and physically abusive of his wife and daughter. Rough language.
This one will work best for the people who like both gritty crime drama and dark fantasy.
