Gideon Falls, Volume 1: The Black Barn Review (Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino)

A ritual killer’s doin’ his thang in the small town of Gideon Falls. A Catholic priest is dispatched to replace the previous Father who recently died in strange circumstances. A mental patient with a face mask wanders the city collecting “special” pieces of garbage. Both priest and nutbar have visions of a black barn. *Yawns* Oh, what does it all mean?

The creative team behind Old Man Logan, Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino, reunite for their first Image series, Gideon Falls. And it’s not very good!

I feel like Lemire watched two of the crappiest, most overrated, yet absurdly popular, TV shows of recent years, Mr Robot and Stranger Things, and decided to do something derivative of them. The mental patient storyline seemed similar to the main character of Mr Robot’s while the small town sheriff/supernatural goings-on was very much in the Stranger Things vein. Even without those shows’ flavourings, neither storyline is interesting. I also didn’t care about any of the characters who weren’t at all likeable or compelling.

The problem is that Lemire’s writing is too obtuse and vague to latch onto. What exactly is going on – why am I meant to care? Something about a religious war between good and evil – like Robert Kirkman’s Outcast but not as good (and even that series isn’t a hill of beans) – while The Black Barn is like The Dark Tower. I found it impossible to be invested in anything that was happening.

Lemire looks to do be doing something like what he did a few years ago in his Vertigo book Trillium with the parallel worlds/storylines – the priest is in one world/timeline, the mental patient is in another. I think that’s what the visual inversions mean – and that last panel. It’s just another unoriginal aspect bolted onto this patchwork of other pop culture elements.

Andrea Sorrentino’s art is surprisingly underwhelming given his usual quality work, though to be fair he’s not given anything very exciting to draw – lots of mundane everyday stuff for the most part. The visual spectacles are reserved for the batshit final chapter though when Sorrentino’s allowed to cut loose, drawing some remarkable, abstract stuff as the priest and some others venture into Lemire’s cut-price Upside Down.

Gideon Falls, Volume 1: The Black Barn is barnstormingly unoriginal and uninspired. Maybe Lemire’s going somewhere more engaging in the next book/s but I didn’t see enough in this first one to want to keep going and find out.