Review: The Occultist #3

This issue left me with just one question… where the hell ismy Occultist ongoing series? Honestly I’m disappointed that this is all of thecharacter and the world that I have to enjoy until the next outing. You mayrecall after the release of the second issue that we were privy to an exclusive preview of this, the third issue. If it didn’t excite you for the conclusionthen I question your taste in comics. Seeley has been knocking it out of thepark as of late. The second issue was very exciting and character driven, then hisrun on Witchblade began and it toowas very good. So how does the conclusion of The Occultist measure up?

This issue actually takes a step back to events that tookplace in the first issue as we find several (probably too many) police officersexamining the dead body of the murdered mage. After that we travel to thedimensional pocket of Eilat Cohen. She was the character that was warming up toRob aka The Occultist in the last issue. That is before she pulled a gun onhim. Rob begins talking to her and asking her to read him since he’s now onewith the book and her talent is reading. He begins to get through to her when his new cop friend knocksher ass out with a big “Ki-yah!” Everything seems okay for a moment before Robis grabbed out of the dimension by the serpent woman trying to kill him. It’sthen revealed that Rob cast a spell on his girlfriend so that she wouldn’tleave him. He breaks the spell and the serpent’s power over him by planting abig kiss on the detective. Then it’s just him and the sword versus the deadlyserpent that already has a few notches in its bedpost from killing mages.

This book was worth the wait and that’s really the bestthing I can say about any mini-series. When you know that a book is going tocome to an end and you just have to wait for it, it’s terrible when you get tothe end and it’s bad. Thankfully, The Occultisthas a great conclusion that leaves the book open to future stories or as I wouldprefer monthly issues. The potential for this character and world is huge andif Dark Horse manages it properly they could have their next big franchise.Regardless, this is the end for TheOccultist for now and writer Tim Seeley did a bang up job of delivering thegoods yet again.

Victor Drujiniu has also been very consistent with the artfrom beginning to end. He has a wonderful photorealistic style that is not onlyperfect for comics, but for this genre. He really brings the charactersto life and gives them emotional facial expressions with believable bodylanguage. His work on this book has far exceeded any of his previous work andhopefully we’ll see a lot more of him in 2012. If you missed this series then I encourage you to pick it upin digital and get caught up. In fact if you like you can pick all three uptoday and read them in one setting, which I bet makes for a better readoverall.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Tim Seeley

Artist: Victor Drujiniu

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Price: $3.50

Release Date: 1/11/12

First Issue Review.
Second Issue Review.