Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Danny Luckert
Colorist: Marie Enger
Letterer: Marie Enger
Cover by: Danny Luckert
Publisher by: Image Comics
The body count is on the rise in Regression #3
Regression introduced us to Adrian, whose vivid waking nightmares were destroying his simple, normal existence. Confiding in his friend Molly (who might be secretly in love with him), Adrian reluctantly agreed to undergo past life regression therapy with Molly’s hypnotist friend, Sid.
That one session was enough to open the door between Adrian’s present and an unspeakable evil in one of his past lives. Sid turned up dead, tortured and mutilated in his apartment. Adrian is the best suspect law enforcement could ask for. Multiple calls from Adrian’s number to Sid’s cell on the night of the murder, sketchy alibi, obviously lying about something…
By the third chapter, Detective Graymercy catches up to Adrian and begins his preliminary interview. Adrian’s visions are becoming increasingly vivid and disturbing. We learn more about the mysterious Gregory, and some of the imagery associated with Adrian’s past life becomes a little clearer.
Don’t you dare run…not ever again!
For my money, this is the most dark and twisted of Cullen Bunn’s titles. Bunn draws on personal experience from his childhood and knows just a little too much about past life regression. Watching his father Franklin perform PLR in the seventies, Cullen witnessed some very disturbing and unexplainable phenomena.
The pacing of Regression is working beautifully. The balance between the present and past is just about perfect. It feels like equal weight is being given to driving the current story in the present and digging into this Gregory character and his horrific past.
Danny Luckert and Marie Enger are doing an amazing job selling Bunn’s script. Luckert’s deceptively simple style has fooled me more than once. Looking back to past issues to refresh my memory of where the story has been, I keep picking up sneaky little details that I missed on the first go ‘round.
There’s also a nice artistic dissociation between past and present in this story. Luckert gives us beautiful, elaborate gothic frames around panels and Enger’s vibrant watercolor palette washes out in grays for sequences that happen in the past. Trouble’s brewing when we stop noticing the difference.
Regression has a spot in my pull list for as long as Bunn and co. continue making them. Regression holds something special for readers of supernatural, horror, mystery, and crime procedurals.
Overall: 10/10
Brendan Allen has probably had more jobs than you would reasonably believe. Dog trainer? He’s done it. Flooring contractor? Yep! EMT? Army NBC specialist? Road dog for a Celtic rock band? Yes, yes, and och aye! Now he reads comics and writes about them.
