Comic review: Sherlock Holmes Vs. Harry Houdini #3- Great cover, borderline unreadable book.

Writers: Anthony Del Col & Conor McCreery
Artist: Carlos Furuzono
Cover artist: Aaron Campbell
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Released: 14th January 2015

****SPOILERS IN REVIEW****

As soon as I finish up this review I’m going to scour the Internet for the opinion of other reviewers. There must be somebody out there that likes this comic book, but to me it reads like a baffling, haphazard, sprawling, headache inducing, confusing mess.

I want to clarify that statement, and make it crystal clear that my confusion has nothing to do with the narrative itself. I understand exactly what is going on. I have re-read the book twice over, and even gone back to issue #2 to clarify a few points in my mind, so I know exactly what is happening. My confusion is based on the construction of the story and what it is trying to do to the poor reader.

If it’s trying to baffle, trying to confound, trying to annoy the reader, then it’s a huge success. This is dense, dense stuff. It doesn’t help that the two lead characters are drawn so similarly either. Was that Holmes speaking, or was it Houdini? I kept getting them mixed up as they are almost identical in appearance. The final panel illustrates this problem perfectly, with the two leads sharing the panel, looking like twins, and ending the book with the same sense of conclusion that it opened with. Was that Houdini on the hypnotist’s couch? Let me check again.

Nope, it was Holmes.

And the plot itself, underneath all of the dense layers of obsuration it’s maddeningly nonsensical and utterly unlike any detective story that I’ve ever read.

Issue #2 concluding by revealing the identity of the villain. It also revealed his motivations, and exactly how he was carrying out his machinations. You don’t do this in a detective story, and if you do then you better have a pretty bloody good reason for doing so.

Issue #3 of Sherlock Holmes vs. Houdini looks at the villain’s accomplice/boss, at the bloke in the shadows who was helping him out. This bloke turns out to be ****SPOILER ALERT***** Rasputin the mad monk. Yeah, that guy….again. So why the early reveal? I don’t see any good reason here, as the reveal isn’t a narrative misdirection, designed to thrill the reader, it’s just that the main villain wasn’t the dull old guy after all, rather he was Rasputin instead. So what? Why exactly am I supposed to care about this?

So Rasputin is messing with Holmes and Houdini with his special magical powers, and when confronted by Holmes the great detective doesn’t even care to ‘wait for the reveal.’ Rather than chatting it over with the beardy weirdo he chooses instead to physically attack Rasputin. When does that ever happen in a Holmes story? The answer to that question is, never. It never happens because Sherlock Holmes is a brain, a puzzle solver, not a fist first, explanation later kind of guy, as he is portrayed in this book. The only thing that would interest Holmes at all about this case would be the motive of the villain, so to have him refusing an explanation is utterly baffling to me.

I tell you what, thinking about this again, I know exactly how Holmes feels. If I was in his shoes then I don’t think I’d care much about the reveal either. The reason why I don’t care is because the writer hasn’t given me any reason to care. There’s no mystery here, just an explanation of motive. That isn’t a detective story, and it’s barely a story at all.

I’m a huge fan of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, but this interpretation of Holmes portrays him as somebody that I find impossible to have any empathy for, and Harry Houdini is just as unpleasant, arrogant, petty and self centred as well. Why create a comic book where your titular characters are egotistical braggarts who readers are going to have a difficult time identifying with? That’s a baffling decision, and I can’t understand why it was made.

Why should anybody care that two arrogant sods are being messed with? I don’t like either character in this book, and all the story has to offer now is to reveal why Rasputin was messing with them, and whether or not he has any genuine supernatural powers. That’s not enough to keep the story interesting. I need more than that to keep on reading.

This issue ends with Rasputin doing what Rasputin always does in stories such as this ***SPOILER ALERT AGAIN**** he dies, then comes back to life again. Am I supposed to care about him now? Why should I care? I don’t understand why I should care.

Oh, and I see in the preview for issue #4 that Houdini supposedly got arrested in this book. Err, what? Did I miss that? Nope, I didn’t. What was missing was the panel that actually showed him getting arrested. That panel never existed. Goddamn it, this review is starting to make my head hurt now.

This book has been such a slog to get through, such bloody hard work, not a lot of fun, and I can’t find any valid reason to care about any of it.

I need some positives here, as all of this negativity is starting to weigh me down. There is one good thing about the book, that being the exceptional front cover art by Aaron Campbell. Look at that cover again at the top of this review. Isn’t that beautiful? Mr Campbell has done a great job on that one.

Oh man, here we go again with more depressing negativity, but I have to be truthful here. That amazing front cover art is in a different league to the artwork within the actual book, and the drowning scene that is featured on that cover never even happens in the story anyway. There is a tank of water in the book, but there’s no girl in it, so I don’t know what happened there. It’s like the cover art is from another, much better book than this one. That cover is great, but the interior stuff is not very impressive at all.

I can’t keep buying this book because of the cover, no matter how good it is. I need something more than that for my money, and the story and art within just isn’t cutting it for me, so off I go.

Now to read those other reviews. I’m sure that somebody out there has given this book a good rating (there always seems to be somebody on the Internet who will give a top mark to a bad book) and I can’t wait to see how he talks this one up.

Rating: 2/10 (for that lovely front cover)