My Rating
“Hallows’ Eve”
Janine Godbe has always been dealt a bad hand in life. From an abusive childhood to falling in love with a cloned superhero, trouble seems to follow her wherever she goes. Since her release from prison, Janine has tried to go straight and build something resembling a normal life with Ben Reilly. Unfortunately, when life hands Janine lemons, lemonade never seems to be an option. She gets the whole damn lemon parade instead.
Then New York City went to Hell. Literally.
The Beyond Corporation used words like “Limbo Dimension,” but whatever corporate terminology they want to slap on it doesn’t change what happened to Ben. After subjecting the Spider-Man clone to their experiments and manipulations, Ben Reilly eventually emerged as Chasm. As if Janine’s life wasn’t complicated enough, the Goblin Queen, Madelyne Pryor, unleashed the forces of Limbo upon Manhattan during the Dark Web crisis. Somewhere in all that demonic chaos, Janine Godbe underwent a transformation of her own.
Now armed with a mysterious bag of supernaturally powered Halloween masks, Janine has adopted the name Hallows’ Eve. Each mask allows her to assume the powers and characteristics of the creature it represents. Need some muscle? Try a werewolf mask. Need something a little more horrifying? Just dig deeper into the bag. For a woman already on the run, that kind of supernatural arsenal could prove extremely useful—or become one more curse she never asked for.
How will New York’s newest antihero handle life as a fugitive? Are the Halloween masks really a gift, or will Janine eventually discover there is a price attached to using them? More importantly, will anyone believe the story about a werewolf robbing a bank near Battery Park? Collect the series to find out!
Review
I picked up Hallows’ Eve #1 on a recommendation, and what a treat! Marvel has been playing around with some unusual superhero concepts lately, and I like the direction. Between Mary Jane gaining powers through a super-powered wrist device and Janine carrying around a bag filled with magical Halloween masks, somebody at Marvel remembered that comic books are allowed to get weird. Hallows’ Eve is especially appealing because her powers have an old-school supernatural quality to them. You never quite know what Janine is going to pull out of that bag next.
I haven’t read the majority of the Dark Web storyline, so I came into this miniseries without knowing every detail surrounding Janine and Ben Reilly. Thankfully, the first issue gives enough information to get things moving without requiring a stack of homework. I’m already a fan of Marvel’s Limbo Dimension, and the connection between Hallows’ Eve and the demons of Limbo immediately caught my attention. S’ym appears to have played a part in Janine getting her bag of masks. If so, somebody in Limbo may eventually regret letting that little collection escape into the human world.
What really sells the issue for me is Janine herself. She isn’t immediately trying to become the next squeaky-clean superhero patrolling Manhattan. She has spent most of her life getting kicked around, and now she finally has enough power to kick back. That gives Hallows’ Eve an antihero quality that fits perfectly with the supernatural theme. I’m giving Hallows’ Eve #1 four out of five stars. This was a fun opening issue with a wonderfully strange power set, plenty of Marvel supernatural goodness, and enough mystery surrounding those masks to bring me back for issue #2. Hopefully Janine gets her Ben back—but considering this is Marvel Comics, I wouldn’t start planning the happy reunion just yet.