Graveyard Shift, Volume 1

Gaveyard Shift #1

by Jon Malin (Writer/Illustrator), Mark Poulton (Writer), Anthony George (Colorist)

What if the Universal Monsters were the X-Men?! That's the question Mark Poulton (Avengelyne, Savage Hawkman) and Jon Malin (Cable, Thunderbolts) answer in this hard-hitting sci-fi/horror graphic novel! Scientists Vladimir Blud, Lilith Mayhew and her husband, head of security Mick Mayhew are working on advance human regeneration for the mysterious Atlantis Corporation. Betrayed, murdered and put into their own experiments, they are reborn with super human abilities. They are the Graveyard Shift and they are all that can stop a rising supernatural evil from taking over the world!

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror

48 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2019

About the author

Jon Malin is a self-taught artist who started his comics career in the independent market starting out on Digital Webbing Presents #1 followed by some cover work and various pin-ups in Image Comics. His first high profile break came when he was picked up by Rob Liefeld and asked to launch the Nitrogen and Supreme Sacrifice series, written by Robert Kirkman for Liefled’s Arcade Comics imprint. He then went on to illustrate a Youngblood revival for Liefeld in 2012. He was eventually acquired by Marvel Comics to illustrate Cable Deadpool before going on to illustrate New Warriors, Thunderbolts, and Cable.

Reviews

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is less "What if the Universal Movie Monsters were the X-Men?" and more "What if the Fantastic Four were the Universal Movie Monsters by way of the X-Men?" The characters are manufactured monsters created by nonconsensual scientific experimentation; and far from fighting to save a world that hates them, they are hated by the world due to their own reckless actions in pursuit of revenge against those that made them into monsters...combined with their nemeses' media savvy.

This wasn't what I expected -- or hoped for -- since I went in having heard it was literally about Dracula, Frankenstein's monster & the Bride of Frankenstein operating as a team of misunderstood superheroes. The pacing is breakneck, but often to its detriment, and Malin's writing [correction: Malin isn't the author, it's Mark Poulton] in this volume is a little rough, with some characters having unnatural expository dialogue (how they are named "Graveyard Shift" still makes no sense to me) and others lacking the exposition necessary to make a scene really gel. Also, early in the volume the Bride is repeatedly off-model (when she first appears she has the torso of a freakin' linebacker, but on the next page she looks like a normal {so-to-speak} woman; and there's one needlessly gratuitous scene of a pregnant woman having her belly blown out the front of her by an explosion, complete with visible viable fetus and all...again, caused by the recklessness of the "heroes." Yeesh.

I'm not really sure what to think of this. There's some potential here, but it feels like Malin [again, I mean Poulton] needs an editor and some time away from his projects in the future so he can come back to them with fresh eyes and iron out the flaws. I ordered all three (to date) volumes on a whim, and I will admit that I'm curious what's to come after the revelation at the end of the first volume, so I guess i'll be sticking with the series. For now.