We all love those end-of-the-world stories, don’t we? The ones where the odds show no exit, where the eventual conclusion of all that is known cannot be overcome. Where an unwanted finality has finally arrived.
And, really, there are so many of those types of stories across so many different genres: science fiction, fantasy and horror and in so many pop culture forms – novel, short story, film, television and comic book.
The best ones, for me, are always the more personal apocalypse type of tales.
Sure, everything ends for everyone, at some time, but those sorts of stories always seem grander, more important, when the end comes for a protagonist that readers know and care for. Those end-times sorts of fictions can be something as monumental as the destruction of the universe, the planet Earth, or a way of life. Or they can be something as small and wholly affecting as a childhood naivety.
Those are the apocalyptic tales that I prefer.
Today’s release of Behold Behemoth #1, the first issue of a five-issue issue miniseries from Boom! Studios, gives us something that is all of that – and more.
Behold Behemoth, written by Tate Brombal (House of Slaughter) and wonderfully illustrated by Nick Robles (The Dreaming: Waking Hours) is biblical in scope and solitary in its more personal horror. The story crosses both time and fantasies, as social worker Greyson attends the funeral of his estranged older brother, a police officer who has suddenly and mysteriously died.
From both Greyson’s daydreams and his evening nightmares, we know that his brother was always very protective, fueling the younger boy’s imagination while shielding him from the realities of life. Why they separated is known. But those sleepless nights that Greyson endures are now haunted by images of a terrifying monster and, after being introduced to a young orphan girl, that terrifying behemoth may have shocking ties to both of the broken individuals – and the end of the world!
With Brombal’s affected and affecting protagonists and Robles brilliant art that teeters between evocative childhood memories, omnipresent menace and deep-rooted psychological horror, Behold Behemoth is vast in its scope and is a thrilling read about two people about to face their own oncoming apocalypse.
Before your time is up, make the run to your local comic book shop today and pick up Behold Behemoth #1.
