Injection #11 - Image Comics

INJECTION No. 11, March 2017

Tantalisingly its readership with a genuinely spooky opening that involves “an entire stone circle” being unearthed in Cornwell and the subsequent discovery of a skinned corpse being “chained" to it, Warren Ellis’ script for Issue Eleven of “Injection” initially bears all the hallmarks of another of the graphic novelist’s mesmerising folkloric themed adventures. Sadly however, any such notion is then almost immediately quashed by the Essex-born writer’s introduction of Brigid Roth and more unnecessary colourful metaphors than even a “Rated M/Mature” comic book has a right to have.

Indeed, if it wasn’t for the Injection team-member’s apparent predilection for profanities, it would genuinely be hard to argue that anything of any actual note occurs within this twenty-page periodical; except perhaps the computer geek’s unoriginal materialisation inside a deserted garage using a spatial relocation device which looks suspiciously similar to the TARDIS console from the BBC science fiction television programme “Doctor Who”. Certainly, this publication’s audience won't have been 'won over' by the Dubliner’s attempt to “gouge out” a coffee machine with a screwdriver simply because if wouldn’t work, or her sitting silently alone atop her home’s roof recollecting how her residence came with its own earthwork. 

Even once the Cross Culture-Contamination Unit (CCCU) operative arrives at the grisly murder’s location, little of interest take places, as an overly hostile Roth seems intent on swearing at both FPI assets Ryan Sutter and Bob Gristle within moment of meeting them, and then starts talking ‘mumbo jumbo’ to her tiny stone totem, Sheela-na-gig. In fact, it isn’t until the comic’s cliff-hanger, when a horrified Brigid reasons that the Mellion Ring Stones are actually just the lid to something which extends “way further down,” that Ellis somehow surprisingly rekindles the suspense his narrative’s prologue first promised.

Quite possibly more disappointing than this comic’s penmanship though, are Declan Shalvey’s breakdowns. Initially well-drawn and full of increasing menace, as three backpackers cross Mellion’s Tor only to discover a decaying corpse, the Eagle Award-winner’s artwork becomes increasingly inconsistent as he repeatedly attempts to imbue Roth with some sort of personality. Whilst the less said about the Irishman’s ‘flashback sequence’ depicting Brigid purchasing her home “not too far from Dublin”, and garishly coloured by Jordie Bellaire, the better…

The regular cover art of "INJECTION" No. 11 by Declan Shalvey