Publisher: Dark Circle Comics
Writer: Frank Tieri
Artist: Felix Ruiz
Editor: Alex Segura
Release date: 4 November 2015
Price: $3.99

Just when you thought you’d seen everything this genre had to offer, along comes The Hangman and blows all your expectations out of the water.

On the face of it, The Hangman is another resurrection dream come true for comic book historians and those who are just incredibly old and remember The Hangman’s first incarnation in 1941 with fondness. Of course, good characters will never die and The Hangman has cropped up a handful of time since his initial run of thirty issues dried up, but never for very long.

The creative team on The Hangman #1, Frank Tieri and Felix Ruiz, are determined to change all that, starting with this debut issue re-inventing a golden age icon for the twenty-first century. The cover screams mean, moody and magnificent, but the story opens on a scene of domestic bliss. That only lasts until we discover that Daddy dearest keeps more than a spare wheel in the trunk of his car.

A quick segue into one of the most gruesome execution scenes you are ever likely to want to see and we have The Hangman swooping into exact vengeance with strong hints that he may be much more than your average hooded muscleman. This is not for the faint-hearted, but it is a glorious mix of brutality, vigilante justice and the supernatural.

The name may be the same but this a very different Hangman from all his previous incarnations and he deserves to be around for a long, long, time.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker