DeFilippis and Weir's Skinwalker

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DeFilippis and Weir's Skinwalker
By Leroy Douresseau
January 5, 2004 - 16:08

Oni Press
Writer(s): Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir
Penciller(s): Brian Hurtt
Inker(s): Arthur Dela Cruz
Cover Artist(s): Durwin Talon
ISBN: 1-929998-45-7

It begins in the American desert. A killer skins his victims alive and then takes the skins. As more victims appear, Navajo Reservation Police Officer Anne Adakai and FBI Agent Greg Haworth face the increasingly confusing task of identifying the killer who has the ability to wear his victims' skins as if they were his own. So how do you stop a killer who can take on any face and be anyone, a killer who is leaving a trail of bodies and a litter of empty skins?

Before NEW MUTANTS (volume 2) husband-wife writing team Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir wrote SKINWALKER, a five-issue mini that Oni has collected in this fine trade with lots of extras. The writing is crisp, and it was this edge-of-your-seat thriller that caught then Marvel President Bill Jemas' attention. How good is this thriller? It's so good that you usually have to go to the theatre to see this kind of potboiler. It's a page-page turner worthy of the top prose best sellers, even if I quibble with what seems like a rushed ending.

Penciller Brian Hurtt may have been still struggling with his draftsmanship when he drew Skinwalker, but his art nevertheless sells this taut thriller. He has what a lot of pretty boy artists don't have, the ability to sell a story without the capes of superheroes.

[DRECK, DULL, READABLE, PRETTY GOOD, EXCELLENT]