This week sees the continued expansion of Image Comics’ Ghost Machine imprint with Hornsby and Halo. This new series seems to fall under the Family Odyssey collection of books along with last week’s The Rocketfellers.

I previously thought that all the series were connected under the Unnamed umbrella and storyline, but this doesn’t appear to be the case. Hornsby and Halo takes place in its own world and is brought to us by Peter Tomasi and Peter Snejbjerg. This new series centers around the never-ending debate of nature versus nurture. Is the quality of our character already pre-determined, or are our upbringing and choices predominantly responsible for making us who we are? In this way, Hornsby and Halo reminds me of Jack Kirby’s DC epic Fourth World, in which warring, godlike monarchs exchanged their sons as a symbol of their intent to keep the peace. In Hornsby and Halo, two babies are chosen, one from an infernal realm of demons and one from a heavenly kingdom of angels. Each child is the descendant of a noble house, and they are to be sent to the human realm to be raised by human parents as a condition of the treaty between the two warring realms. It is the hope that by having the child of demons live with a loving and caring family and the child of angels raised by a neglectful evil couple, when they reached adulthood, they would better understand each other’s worlds.

Peter Snejbjerg’s art heartbreakingly shows the parents’ reluctance to part with their children. His character designs are great in that we know right away that these are angels and demons, but they also have a look that’s unique to the book. John Kalisz’s color work enhances the art by adopting specific color palettes for heaven and hell. Hell is, of course, shades of red and yellow, while Heaven is portrayed in blues and pastels. Rob Leigh adds a specialized word balloon for an angelic character that has a great contrast but remains readable. There have been a lot of word balloons in recent works that I’ve had trouble reading in different light, but Leigh’s choice here was easy to read.

Peter Tomasi has proven adept at child characters in the past with The Super Sons and Sinister Sons for DC, both series I greatly enjoyed. And as with Damien Wayne and Jon Kent, he gives Rose and Zachary unique voices and personalities. It’s clear by the end of the story that the mismatched pair will form an entertaining duo. Besides the human parents of the children, other supporting cast members are left a bit ambiguous. Are their pets from heaven or hell? And what’s up with the bus driver?

Tomasi has wrapped this narrative with questions that should keep readers coming back for answers. This is a successful first issue in presenting the series’ premise and main characters.

Creative Team: Peter Tomasi (writer), Peter Snejbjerg (artist), John Kalisz (colorist), Rob Leigh (letterer)
Publisher: Ghost Machine / Image Comics
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