EDITOR'S NOTE: That headline stands for EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT BUNNY MASK BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK
The second best-selling AfterShock title continues with Season Two beginning this month . . . . . . . .
BUNNY MASK VOLUME ONE RECAP: Two social workers make a house call at the residence of a young girl absent from school and suspected of being abused by her single parent father. In a mysterious cave beneath the home of this crazed madman a strange woman has been sealed up for centuries. Before the visit is finished, one social worker is dead, the other imprisoned in the cave adjoining the dark cellar, and the young girl is murdered by her father. By the time the police arrive, the only one still alive is Tyler Severin, the other social worker.
These events caused the release of Bunny Mask, to walk our world once more. Did she somehow have a hand in Severin’s survival? Fourteen years later, Tyler stumbles across an art gallery with portraits of the strange Bunny Mask images he saw on the cave wall. And the curator of the gallery is Bee Foster, the girl he thought murdered by her father. What is her connection to Bunny Mask?
Tyler is puzzled, questioning his own sanity, and needing to uncover the secrets of what waits behind the mask. He strikes up a relationship with both Bee Foster and the mysterious woman in the Bunny Mask, who has a strange way of using her unnatural powers to remedy what she deems as “sickness.” Severin’s efforts to unravel the puzzle only raise further questions as Bunny Mask deals out her extreme cure all around him. FIVE STARS.
“They Were Sickness” by Paul Tobin and Andrea Mutti. “The Hole Where I Watch My Neighbor” by Paul Tobin and Roberta Ingranata.
Here’s hoping FCBD attendees didn’t assume this was a reprint and pass it over. This contains two original stories in the Bunny Mask world that go quite a ways towards shedding more light on this iconic character and moving forward with the story.
The opening story is a chilling five-pager that reveals Bunny Mask has maneuvered herself into Tyler Severin’s life, unexpectedly visiting his apartment in the middle of the night. Like a house cat bringing a dead mouse inside as a gesture of thanks for providing a home, Bunny Mask also brings Tyler gifts. It’s a sign of gratitude but also a warning related to what she perceives as weakness. He seems both frightened by and infatuated with her. Disturbing.
The art by Ingranata in the second story (16 pages) is evocative but less perturbing than the stories drawn and colored by Mutti, but Tobin makes up for it with a creepier situation. Because social work doesn’t command a decent paycheck Tyler carpools and shares an apartment with fellow worker Rillo. They have an agreement regarding guests with Rillo visiting her girlfriend whenever Bee Foster is visiting Tyler although he hesitates to take their relationship too far. Bunny Mask visits randomly, often at night, despite Tyler’s request to leave him alone. But he can’t resist her.
The resident in the apartment next door is a voyeur who has drilled a peephole into Tyler and Rillo’s apartment. He witnesses some weird sights, as the peephole into one room suddenly expands into a view of the entire apartment, and then wherever Tyler seems to travel. Until, one day their neighbor sees Bunny Mask looking back at him and gets a surprise visit.
FOUR STARS.
Both Tyler Severin and Sheriff Roger Tate (who rescued him from the cave) are bothered by voices in their head (the Snitch). Tyler has set up private practice as a mental health specialist and gets frequent visits from Tate, who advises him on his relationship with Bee Foster.
The burning question Tate has for Tyler is “how are you going to get Bunny Mask out of your life?” Tyler has no answers, beyond admitting that “the things I’ve seen her do. They . . I don’t know? Deaden me? My whole brain goes cold, my chest twists. I get nauseous.” I won’t spoil things, but there are plenty of examples of the decisive actions of Bunny Mask whenever she detects “is there sickness?”
Tyler doesn’t go as far as confess to Tate just how close he is to Bunny Mask (they are bedmates), but he does admit that “she uses me as an anchor, Sheriff. She says that I ground her. She tells me I give her the chance to emerge more fully into our world, and access even more of her power.”
It’s odd that as much as these two share with each other, neither seems to be concerned about Bee Foster. They both know that she died in the cave as a child, but Tate has dropped the Bee investigation. Maybe because she seems totally normal.
Only those who Bunny Mask has granted “extended permission” to can see her. One of my favorite scenes this issue is her encounter with an elderly woman dying of cancer in a hospital bed. Bunny Mask senses the sickness, but it’s the sickness within the senior’s care team that concern her more. I don’t want to share too much, but the story is evolving in ways that make it possible to empathize with Bunny Mask, however horrific that may seem. Quite a beginning.
Things cap off with a short text piece by Paul Tobin, “Tiny Drops”, in which date-rapers receive justice from Bunny Mask. This issue is worth multiple reads. FIVE STARS.
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