The Strain - Complete Series

When a Boeing 777 lands at JFK International Airport and goes dark on the runway, the Centers for Disease Control, fearing a terrorist attack, calls in Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and his team of expert biological-threat first responders. Only an elderly pawnbroker from Spanish Harlem suspects a darker purpose behind the event—an ancient threat intent on covering mankind in darkness.

Anything within the horror genre tends to be hit or miss for me, but something Guillermo Del Toro was involved in had good odds to be a hit.  As I had hoped from the first book, The Strain turned out to undoubtedly be quite a big hit in my opinion.  I wasn’t sure what direction this would go in, but fortunately the story has a gruesomely fresh approach while keeping to the classic roots.  With equally gruesome art, this series has started off the trilogy strong.

This adaptation to comics is like something out of a movie, which I suppose isn’t much of a surprise, nor is it a bad thing.  That fact aside, this take on a vampire apocalypse finds itself centered in the Big Apple, adding to the horror of such an event.  Right in the middle of it all we get a rather hodgepodge group of people battling to stop it.  As unconventional as this “team” is, they’re all quite interesting in their own right and keep you following along the journey.

To further envelop the reader in this frightening tale requires the right visual, and we get that element we need.  The dark environments house characters in a world of the unknown before many meet their gory demise by the vampire menace.  These fearsome creatures were brought to the comic world in the truly disgusting manner that they deserved.

With the vampire novelty wearing off, and ruined for some as of late, this may not find itself on everyone’s shelf.  As one might expect from this kind of book, it has plenty of blood, guts, and even some nudity, so some may shy away knowing that.

At the end of the day, I’m generally a sucker for a good vampire story.  Luckily for me, this is definitely one of the good ones.  There’s a great story here with the art that should go along with it hiding in the shadows.  These are books well worth picking up, just don’t read them alone in the dark.

For more information on The Strain comics or other Dark Horse books, check out Dark Horse Comics.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this series for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.