Athanasia

Novelist Kraus (The Autumnal) and artist Dani (The Low, Low Wood) serve up a provocative and unsettling superhero horror story. For generations, the Molson family has tended Athanasia Cemetery, resting place for fallen members of the Dynamic Guild, Venture City’s protectors. After her younger sister’s death in a grim boneyard accident, Forrest Molson has dropped out of high school, developed a pill addiction, and upset her father with rants about the family’s exploitation by would-be gods. Forrest gets a taste of power when she discovers—and, in squirm-inducing and psychedelic-styled panels, ingests—a green goo oozing up from the graves. Her new super-abilities are unpredictable, the goo is addictive, and her efforts to right the everyday wrongs the guild ignores prove harrowing. The narrative holds to Forest’s angsty street-level perspective as she alienates family, friends, and crushes but connects with creepy goo-fed bird pets. Kraus finds fresh angles on grief, vigilantism, and comic-book science, while Dani’s art—inky black-and-white with splashes of green—conjures dread among spare streets and snowed-over tombstones, even if some of the gothic grimness wears thin. Still, horror fans will find this smart and unpredictable. (Oct.)