Graphic Novel Review: INVASIVE

INVASIVE by Cullen Bunn, Jesus Hervas, & Federico Sabbbatini (Oni Press, October 22, 2024) Paperback, 128 pages. ISBN # 9781638154984 

Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . .

A 2023 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards Comics Finalist.

“Brilliant . . . It’ll make you think twice before putting your body on an operating table, no matter how much you trust your doctor.” —Comics Beat

Beyond excess, beyond ethics, beyond science. . . . Enter a terrifying new experiment in pain from Eisner Award nominee Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun, Basilisk), 2023 Reuben Award Finalist illustrator Jesús Hervás (The Empty Man), and Federico Sabbatini (Moon Knight)!

Dr. Carrie Reynolds was a veteran trauma surgeon with a godlike mastery of muscle and bone. But outside the operating room, her rigidly ordered life spiraled into chaos when her daughter, Heather - a recovering plastic surgery addict - suddenly disappeared, only to mysteriously reemerge in a catatonic state, her vocal cords removed . . . the latest in a series of victims scarred by a battery of brazenly cruel medical procedures that have baffled police and left an alarming number of once-ordinary citizens maimed, mutilated, or dead on arrival.

Deep beneath the streets of Carrie's city, a new kind of underground hospital has just opened its doors . . . and, once inside, there are no rules, no oaths, and no taboos too deep to not to be broken. Together, a new class of surgeon has sworn to pierce the final threshold of accepted medical orthodoxy one incision at a time. The scalpel is their tool. The alleys are their operating theater. Murder is their medicine. And only Carrie can stop what they're planning next . . .

Collecting Invasive #1-4.

 

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . .

    Creepy, grotesque and chilling from the first page to the last page. The premise is a nasty one, as a detective and a doctor team up to investigate whether there is a serial killer lurking among the black market surgeons performing plastic surgery/body modifications.

     The scenes showing a support group of people unhappy with their appearance and addicted to surgery chilled me to the bone - - - because I don't doubt that is a real thing. 

     As the story progressed, this became more and more disturbing. The art is excellent and really nasty when it needs to be. I did not see the ending coming, but it satisfied in a creepy way. Now I feel like I should take a shower and try to forget this book.