FBI Special Agents Shaw and McGregor find their reality twisting once more, plunging them into an entirely new dimension of terror. Their guide is Paul Carnahan, the child-killer whose crimes they sought to punish, a man known to be dead and buried. As this all-too-human monster tells his story, the pair begin to understand the web of guilt and evil that has them in its grip – a truth that will demand a dreadful price from both.
Stricken with her own memories of wrongdoing, Deputy-director Driscoll struggles to reach the agents under her command, only to realize that her crimes may already have sealed their fate. Carnahan holds the key – but what now looks out from behind his eyes is a great deal more than just a murderer. Old sins and ancient lies combine to herald a terrifying new dawn for all man-kind, in the second and final volume of A Walk Through Hell.
Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
(3,2 of 5 for broken hopes as the comics turns in babble) With the second book, Ennis checks out "WW2/Nazi reference" with small memory of two nazi officers in Paris, which is surprisingly interesting and playful. The comics move the story forward to something diabolical and creepy. But it also getting chaotic, all over the place and confusing. The dialogues between cop colleagues about identity, beliefs, individuality, superiority and minorities, which I liked very much (to my surprise - I'm usually annoyed by unnecessary text fillers) steps back to story dialogues (or more likely lunatic mumbling). I liked the buddy cops chemistry on the ride to something diabolical and uber-evil (that Gideon Falls feeling), but it turned to something I had a hard time to enjoy. I blame Ennis. But it's shame, there was such a potential.
Meh. Where it was going after volume 1 was so much better than where it went in volume 2. Anti climactic. Kinda stupid. Felt like Ennis was just giving himself a tug. 3 stars.
After a lot of set up in the first volume, the second volume gets into the meat of the story and I found it an interesting one, dabbling in the existential even.
Tywe tohle fakt ne... nechapu co na Ennisovi kdo má. Jedinou světlou výjimkou budiž Sara, ale s ohledem na téma tam nebylo moc co zkurvit. Četl jsem nějaký Punishery, ale tam mi v paměti utkvěla jen Dillonova příšerná kresba a Preachera sem protrpěl čtyři booky, abych to mohl s čistým svědomím vrátit kamarádce, která mi to půjčila s tím, že je to nejlepší komiks, co kdy četla (friendship over)...
A Walk Through Hell má svoje momenty, ale ty zajímavý věci jsou pro mě utopený v patostu "existuje Bůh nebo je Bůh vlastně Ďábel", "nebyl život pro lidi lepší po smrti Ježíše" a podobnejch hovnech, který mě fakt ubíjej.
U prvniho booku jsme byl překvapenej, že tam neproběhlo žádný anální znásilnění, ale o to víc si to Ennis vynahradil tady, kde ho máme rovnou dvakrát. Starýho psa novejm kouskům nenaučíš...
No co, mohl to bejt dobrej mysteriózní horor. Námět je rozhodně zajímavej, ale celý to podání mi prostě nesedlo, spoustu důležitejch věcí se tam řekne jen tak mimochodem. Na druhou stranu je fajn, že teď už vím, že jestli ještě někdy budu chtít zkusit něco od Ennise, tak jedině něco s válečnou tématikou...
I usually love Ennis and I'm willing to put in the time and effort to tease apart, scramble up and put back together whatever he writes but this was a damn mess. I read volumes 1 and 2 while sequestered for the coronavirus - the perfect setting for an "end of days" story. About halfway through volume 2 I began to realize that Ennis didn't have a handle on the story - he knew where he wanted to take it but just wasn't sure how to get there. The result is a really bad, bullshit story full of dead ends, patronizing theological mumbo-jumbo, confusing timelines, illogical plot design with sloppy intent and an ending that feels dishonest and forced. The whole thing was just overbearing and a waste of time. C'mon, Ennis you can do so much better.
"Imagine...imagine getting a preview of the twentieth century in a single five-second vision. All of it, the very worst of the triumph in the monsters' hearts, the terror in their victims'. What you did to each other. Well, they got a look at the twenty-first."
That's all a horror book needs, isn't it? Though the window-dressing that gets us there is brilliantly awful too.
I never write reviews, but I just came to say it was a surprise to me that people didn't like this one as much as I did. I liked the short story feel to it and the horror is supremely effective. I also enjoyed the political and religious commentary vein throughout, even though it doesn't look like many else did. Oh well - you win some, you lose some.
Lost the plot of things every now and then. But still, kept me hooked but not horrified and the blabbering and thinking about is-there-god-or-devil was boring. Was this really the last bit of this? Did it end here? Damn.... with all it's flaws, I'm gonna miss this.
The story alternates between quiet time - with the agents talking about worldly issues, politics, their lives and their job - and all-out crazy time in a warehouse where the rules of logic are thrown out the window and people are driven insane. The characters engage in many discussions about human behavior, relationships, pivotal moments in their lives, religion and the church. It's heavy stuff for grownups which might seem like they break the flow of the story. I believe it adds to the mystery, it develops the characters and allows you to experience each step in that hellish realm in small increments.
Shaw and McGregor are FBI agents. Two of their colleagues go missing inside a warehouse that has the local police spooked. Unknown to them the men from a battle-hardened SWAT team that saw the crime scene before they did have commited suicide. They enter a horror realm that works differently from the real world. It's a world somehow connected to the serial killer case they worked on previously. It's hell, but is it only in their head?
Agents Hunzikker and Goss enter mid-afternoon, and haven't been heard from since. Your people deploy and enter about three quarters of an hour later. They come out almost straight away and do that to each other. Which is just too late to stop agents shaw and McGregor, who have now been inside for a little under two hours. Yes?
I spotted this two volume Garth Ennis in an Edinburgh charity shop whilst visiting for our anniversary. I knew they had to come home with me.
Ennis is well known for pushing the boundaries of horror and rather than filling this story with mythical terrors, it is the human condition which is given a close examination.
When FBI agents Shaw and McGregor are called to a Warehouse, they think it is just another routine job. On arrival they soon learn all isn't well, with two of their colleagues 'missing' and a SWAT team in tatters. Their only choice is enter the warehouse to uncover the truth behind the events.
Linking in with a previous case they botched, the story sees them reliving the horrors and discovering how far the conspiracy went. Things take a turn when the deceased perp appears in the Warehouse and implies they are in Hell.
There is a clear anti-Christianity slant and the story loses its way towards the end, becoming rather confused. It's such as shame as there was so much promise after the first volume. I can only give this 3 stars.
The second half of "A Walk Through Hell" ratchets up the surrealism and menace, adding more genuine ambiguity and an increasingly volatile nonlinear timeline to the mix. As the truth about what is going on in that warehouse gradually unfolds, this gradually moves from psychological horror into supernatural into religious horror, and then into something else entirely. What if allegory wasn't allegory? What if the satire of political cartoons could manifest in reality? That isn't what's happening here, but it's along those lines, where the inspiration and the reality of the situation start to intertwine with each other in ominous ways. When we finally flash back to the first scenes, it all means something very different now.
I feel like this series is just a case of trying to throw too many random things together and never actually making them stick. I would have been way more interested in it if it had just been a kind of haunted house story where some people stumble on a fucked up warehouse and can't get out and it could have been purely paranormal but then he throws in all the FBI stuff and the pedophile killer who is... apparently somehow god but also god is really satan? or something? I really just don't know, he got lost in the theological bullshitting there at the end. But just like with the first volume most of the page space is spent on flashbacks to things that happened in the FBI investigation before the actual story begins and that just wasn't interesting to me at all. I would have liked more of the story to take place in the actual warehouse at the very least.
Perhaps you shouldn't read this if you're struggling with anxiety or a severe case of weltschmerz.
This was by far the most depressing and bleakest comic I've read. Ennis' idea of humanity, religion and politics must have been at an all time low when he wrote this in 2019, or around that time. It is a haunting and utterly disturbing exploration of Evil, but one that kept me hooked till the final conclusion. It reads like a really good whodunnit, or in this case, a whatsgoinon. Definitely a one time read for me though. Piece of advice: have a palate cleanser at hand, maybe Calvin & Hobbes or some silly Deadpool.
Segundo tomo de esta novela gráfica. Muy poco puedo decir de ella sin desvelar nada pero me ha dejado absolutamente emocionado a la par que conmocionado. Según se va avanzando en la trama te interna en profundos conflictos morales de la humanidad, tanto en el plano individual como en conjunto social y religioso. Las penumbras lo cubren todo en esta serie detectivesca paranormal con ecos de "True detective". Por el momento uno de los mejores cómics contemporáneos que he leído este año. Si ya la primera entrega era sensacional, la segunda en la frente ahí como se esconde ahí baja hasta el mismo infierno del terror ontológico. Excelente dibujo y edición por parte de Planeta Cómic.
I was rather intrigued by Ennis doing a horror comic and not going straight for his usual preferred tool, Shittons of Gore, choosing instead to slowly build tension and filling out small bits of the picture.
The pity is, none of the reveals and twists presented by the end pack any real punch and the main talking scene to ring out the story and hypothetically fill the reader with existential dread felt disappointingly stock-Ennis to the point where I could swear it was almost verbatim in his first HELLBLAZER run.
The finale to the series is a tad convoluted and could easily have used a few more issues to flesh everything out. Not to mention several confusing elements and confusing allusions to real politicians intermingled with fictional characters which creates an unbalanced reality. In the end the conclusion was a bit anticlimactic and felt rushed and unfinished.
The art is amazing, the story is very confusing. I like the strong female characters and the LGBT representation. I don't get turned off easily from scary or gory plotlines, but I have a hard time with little kids, and this has that. It's not enjoyable to read about, even in the "I'm completely disgusted" kind of way.
Similarly to the first volume, probably deserved 4 stars but for the fact that I was confused again, mainly about the ending. Perhaps I'm just too dense? Anyway, a soid psycho-horror with excellent artwork.
Sabeis eso de que terminas el volumen 1 y no sabes que les esta pasando? Pues al terminar el volumen 2 tampoco sabes por que ha pasado lo que ha ocurrido ahi dentro a tanta gente.
Garth Ennis' horror story about the state of America post-2016 election is creepy, confusing, and a little obvious. Far from his best work but it contains some interesting bits.
Me han ofendido profundamente ese oscurantismo porque sí, esas conversaciones vacías y sobre todo ese cariz político que toma al final y que solo nos habla de lo mal que ha enfocado Ennis toda esta serie.
[EDIT] Apparently, chapter 12 was the last chapter of this story, which means it must be part of this volume. I didn't read the volume itself, cos it hasn't been released yet - I read the individual issues. The text added after I finished chapter 12 is gonna be in italics. I will keep this spoiler free.
The second volume is not as good as the first, I gotta say. We do get more details of what is going on, but we also get more confused. Some parts of the dialogue I had to read several times to understand what was going on. There are some things I still don't understand, but there's two more chapters that have been released so far, so hopefully that'll be more clear. That's what I thought before reading chapters 11 and 12. Some things became more clear, some - not so much.
Even though the two agents always go everywhere together, it starts to feel like one of them gets to talk more than the other. We do get a bit of backstory for the other, though, so I guess it's not that bad, but it still often feels like you have this main detective and some inconsequential assistant, whose sole purpose is to make the main detective question her own choices and opinions.
There's also a lot more violence in this volume and some of it feels to have been added as pure shock value. Then again, it might get revealed that that there was a purpose all along. Some of the disturbing elements are starting to get a little too disturbing for my taste.
Another annoying thing is Biblical symbolism, which I personally can't stand in fiction. I hope that doesn't become the main theme. .___. *squeaky sounds of annoyance*
It's funny. I was prepared to wait till August for the next chapter, because I was sure there was more to the story than it actually was. I can't say it was all bad. The author clearly had an interesting idea, and the book gives me some things to think about. I still feel a bit disappointed, because I thought there be more to it than good vs evil.
This had a lot of potential to be a good series, if they only took the time to develop the characters and their backstories as they fit within the setting they all converged into at the end. We see some depth with Mcgreggor and Shaw's characters, but they took the time to talk about the inherent evil of politics rather than focus how it affected and shaped all the characters who were fighting against it. Just kind of seems overdone before as a general motif. The plot got so convoluted at some points I wonder if this was meant to go on longer as a series to begin with or if there was a different original narrative intent than what we were given now.
Yeah, the conclusion is a bit cliché, but the build-up is great, when you are willing to give the book the time it needs (I had to skip back and forth a lot (in both books) to really get some of the references).
I liked Ennis' writing a lot - though this is my first Garth Ennis' comic, so I can't compare all that much. I liked Sudzukas art even more, though. From atmospheric pitch black warehouse scenes to grotesk body horror, he pulled all that off perfectly and kept me involved (and frightened) the whole time.