Michael Hicks's Reviews > Invasive

Cullen Bunn's Invasive is a lightweight but enjoyable work of body horror revolving around illicit surgeries and grisly deaths. A former cop, Vic, continues the investigation that cost him his career, seeking to uncover the culprits behind the brutal disfigurement of a young boy. He's joined by Carrie, a doctor and mother of another victim who had her vocal cords removed and lays comatose in the hospital.

Bunn's scripting is pretty straight forward and, at only four issues, makes for an incredibly fast-paced read. By the end of the second issue, Vic and Carrie have already uncovered there whereabouts of the gas masked, leather frocked murdersurgeons haunting the back alleys of the city, putting them on a collision course with the mastermind behind the slayings.

Art duties are split between Jesús Hervás and Federico Sabbatini, with Hervás illustrating the first two issues and Sabbatini closing out the series in issues three and four. Hervás's style is a bit grittier and rougher compared to Sabbatini's cleaner, more defined pencils. The two complement each other well here, maintaining a fairly consistent, and consistently dark, visual through-line that brings a suitably bleak and oppressive atmosphere to Bunn's scripts.

Invasive is showcase for style over substance, evoking a very particular mood reminiscent of David Fincher's serial killer thriller Seven, with a strong emphasis on bodily deformations, but little in the way of depth or compellingly memorable motivations.