McFarlane’s new series lacks identity, inspiration

By: Pablo Penton/Columnist
The creator of *Spawn* has finally returned to a creative role in the comic book industry.
After Todd McFarlane helped create Image Comics with *Spawn* in the early 1990s, he left the series in the hands of other writers and accepted his role as a publisher.
After spending several years doing very little creative work, he has returned to writing with a brand new series from Image comics – well, sort of.
*Haunt* was created by Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman. Kirkman handles most of the writing while McFarlane takes care of the inking and draws the cover art. The comic focuses on two brothers, Daniel and Kurt Kilgore. Daniel is an unconventional priest who enjoys spending his free time with prostitutes and indulging in other vices while Kurt is a secret agent who works for the government.
After completing a mission, Kurt is captured and killed by the people whose facility he infiltrated. He returns as a ghost that only Daniel can see and asks him to look over his wife, fearing that the same people who killed him may be after her.
Sure enough, while Daniel is spending the night at his sister-in-law’s apartment, she is attacked by a pair of hit men. Kurt jumps into Daniel’s body and “with their powers combined” they form Haunt, a character who can only be described as a mixture of Spider-Man and Spawn.
With his new role as a host for a superhero, Daniel agrees to begin working as an agent for the same agency his brother worked for.
There are no explanations given as to why or how Haunt exists, which doesn’t help to diminish the biggest, glaring problem with the series: It’s based off a character that is just a combination of the two characters that McFarlane has done his most notable work on.
To its credit, this series isn’t really a superhero comic book, which is its only saving grace. Instead, it’s centered more on the job that Kurt left behind and Daniel’s struggle to take his place, both in the workplace and in taking care of his widowed wife.
Despite not being a complete disaster, Haunt is still dry, mundane and boring. There are no dynamics in this series; it is just a constant, flat tone. The dialogue is straight and to the point without any complexion. Characters who have known each other for years address each other in formal terms, which I can only assume serves as a reminder as to who the forgettable characters are and what role they serve in the story.
Daniel’s personality seems to be heavily reminiscent of Jesse Custer from Garth Ennis’ *Preacher* series, which only welcomes more accusations that this comic book can’t develop its own identity and, instead, just creates one from different sources.
*Haunt* certainly does have a story different from his previous work, but when its main character clings onto ceilings and shoots goo-like web, it’s just too easy to make comparisons to McFarlane’s earlier work.
If Todd McFarlane went into hiding again after *Haunt*, I wouldn’t miss him.

*Panel Panel is a weekly comics column written in tandem by Sean Gonzalez and Pablo Penton. Look for it every Wednesday.*