Is It Good? Clive Barker’s Next Testament #3 Review

When you have a series that runs more than six issues, you’re bound to run into some pacing problems in the single issue format sooner or later. It’s inevitable one of the issues will read more as transition or filler to the next issue, but when read in one sitting it’ll all roll perfectly well. I fear that issue might be here this week for Clive Barker’s Next Testament, but without further ado, is it good?

Clive Barker’s Next Testament #3 (of 12) (Boom! Studios)

If you missed my review of Next Testament #2, read it here.

The first issue dazzled with the introduction of a man who uncovers God. His son discovers his obsession with uncovering a secret artifact that is God’s prison. The second issue incorporated some theological aspects as well as some neat interactions with God and regular people. The third issue…well it’s just one big gore explosion!

Now that’s a good way to de-skull a guy.

There’s not a lot of dialogue from God—he gets about two pages—and those pages are mostly concerning his relationship with the man who freed him. The son gets a bit of play too, but you’ll be able to read this book very quickly as there’s more “action” than dialogue.

He’s so happy to see them!

Writers Clive Barker and Mark Miller are writing themselves an epic horror right here. Truly, in an age where you can acquire information with your fingertips, fly anywhere, do anything with paper money, the scariest thing might be losing it all. This God they’ve created seems to be giddy with the idea of playing with humans and that play will resort in deaths. So far he’s killed a few, but mostly inspected his prey. He’s searched the Internet to learn what he’s missed in the thousands of years he was imprisoned and he’s delighted with what we’ve become.

Heh heh. You wanted to “do it” with God.

I wonder if it was difficult to draw this issue for Haemi Jang. The sheer amount of gore is impressive. I don’t think I’ve seen so much in a single issue of a comic book. It’s also well rendered; the color in particular shows off layers of flesh. It’s not just red and pulpy, but has weight and another level of realism not seen in comics every day. Horror fans of all sorts would be remiss to pass this up. There’s truly something special going on here on multiple levels.

These guys need a “leg up” hehe.

7.5

• The gore is fantastically, grossly, real.
• Anyone wanting gore on top of gore come on in

• Fast read missing the sociological, theological bits of previous issues

This is a transition issue if I ever saw one. The characters are going from point A to point B and to satisfy the reader in purchasing the book there’s gore. A lot of gore. Personally I’m not a big fan of gore or torture in horror movies, so it didn’t do much for me while reading this issue. That said, the purpose isn’t lost on me. We’re seeing the power of God and it’s pretty ferocious and unforgiving.

Is It Good?

Yes. Still a good issue, but a step down from the last two.