Nailbiter Returns #1 Sets a Horrific Tone: A Review

Writer: Joshua Williamson / Artist: Mike Henderson / Image I’m going to start this review with three caveats, the first minor and the last two major. 1) My typical media consumption has historically tended away from straight up horror series, although I have found myself both reading and watching more horror at the recommendation of my friends. 2) This has a Mature rating for a reason and the cover is benign to some of body horror content inside the issue. I repeat, there is a wide spectrum of body horror. 3) Given the first fact, I never read the original Nailbiter. It had never been on my radar. But as comics slowly begin getting released to the masses again, I saw the cover to Nailbiter Returns and was intrigued by both the art style and the pitch: a small town in Oregon produced sixteen serial killers and the worst one, the titular Nailbiter, knew the dark cities of the secrets and Agent Finch and Sheriff Crane solved the case and put those mysteries to rest until now…

Nailbiter Returns is a #1, which means that even for the uninitiated you should be able to walk in and understand the stories without needing the context of anything that came before it and to the Williamson’s credit, he does that masterfully between a cold open in the past and the standard opening in the present. The flashback quickly establishes the horrific tone of the series and the opening in the present day provides a quick recap of the original series while also establishing the new status quo. It…