Recently, Joe Quesada spoke of the opening of the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man's Brand New Day as a sort of slap in the reader's face, to get the reader adjusted to the new Spider-Man status quo. Well, after reading IDW's Silent Hill: Sinner's Reward #1(written by Tom Waltz and drawn and colored by Steph Stamb, the opening has its own slap in the face, but in this case, it is the sort of slap in the face that gets a reader to pay attention to the book. In fact, while I probably should not do this, I am going to show you the first two pages of the comic book, and you can decide for yourselves if the first two pages have an intriguing enough hook for you (and if they did, you still have time to reserve a copy or have your local store order a copy of this issue - Diamond code: DEC073717).

Enjoy!

First off, here's one of the covers for the comic.

It then opens with the following impressive two pagers, more on the side of Waltz, but Stamb's artwork here is strong, as well.

Come on - that's a catchy opening, isn't it?

The story continues in flashbacks, telling a basic horror story, just set within the world of Silent Hill, which is a popular video game centered around a town that has a eerie mysticism surrounding it.

Our protagonist arrives in Silent Hill along with his girlfriend. The two are on the run from her mobster husband, who has sent goons to capture them. When the protagonist's girlfriend is taken hostage, he is forced to go even deeper into Silent Hill to rescue her.

The comic is not overflowing with characterization, but there is more in this issue than expected, particularly the flashback to the childhood of the protagonist. Strong work there by Waltz, to give the protagonist an interesting back story in very little room.

The artwork by Stamb occasionally gets a bit bulky, but on the whole, is an impressive piece of the comic, as well.

I believe I read somewhere that sales were a bit low on the first issue of this series, so if you have any interest in this series at all - give it a shot and keep this series going.

I would probably recommend the book on my own, just barely, but I would especially recommend this comic to both horror fans and fans of the Silent Hill video game series.

Recommended.