My Rating
“The Invisible Man”
Mrs. Hall was hesitant to rent a room to the odd looking man, but it wasn’t tourist season quite yet, so any money coming in would be a blessing for the Coach and Horses Inn. Why was the man dressed so queerly? Bandages were covering every inch of his exposed flesh. Was the stranger a disabled war veteran? Jenny would have felt bad for him if it weren’t for his demanding nature. Their guest’s condescending nature showed no bounds.
The following day Mr. Hall and his workers reluctantly fetched the new guest’s luggage. The stranger had demanded his equipment and journals be retrieved from the village train station the night before but the snow storm forbade it. In the morning George Hall’s porters found no mere grips, rather three industrial sized wooden crates. Blast the man and his accouterments! Two hours later the stranger was heard expelling everyone from his room in the most vicious manner. The man demanded solitude, and nothing less would be tolerated.
A month passed with very little contact. The Halls would see the man in passing, or at meal times, but these encounters were infrequent. The stranger paid his room fees on time at first, then the payments stopped all together. George and Jenny Hall began to argue one morning over the rent. George wanted to evict the stranger but Jenny had become frightened of him. One evening she had brought the man’s supper to his room, and inside she caught a glimpse of him without his goggles on. “George, the man had no eyes”, Jenny bellowed. She did not reveal what else she had witnessed. The stranger’s hands were missing as well…
Who is the weird hotel guest dressed from head to toe in medical bandages? What secrets did George Hall discover when snooping through the stranger’s journals? Is there a ghost haunting the local Vicar? Collect the series to find out!
Reviewer Notes
What an interesting adaptation of H.G. Wells original story. It always amazes me how much comic book writers can trim out of a novel and still create a fully functioning storyline. Overall the issue was a fun look back to Victorian horror stories. H.G. Wells was king of science fiction in the late 19th century; unfortunately, his Invisible Man character would not receive a sequel in the Marvel universe. Griffin’s death seems to have put a damper on things.
An unrelated character donning the title Invisible Man would show up in Deadpool Volume 06, Issues 28 and 29 (2016). It’s basically a knock off of the H G. Wells’ Griffin character as far as I can tell. If the Invisible Man was as popular as Frankenstein and Dracula, I’m sure Stan Lee would have found a way to keep the character alive. I mean, Thomas Marvel survived with Griffin’s journals after all.
I’m giving this adaptation four out of five stars. If you love classic horror stories, or are a fan of the Universal Studios monster movies, you may want this one. The price is pretty reasonable as most collectors want the Living Mummy or Morbius books. Good hunting, if you decide to buy.
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