Red Mother #2 was released on Jan. 15, 2020. — **Red Mother #2** was released on Jan. 15, 2020.

By d. emerson eddy — One of my favorite things in horror is uncertainty. Horror often taps into one of the primal fears — fear of the unknown, fear of that unseen thing lurking on the threshold — but it can also often subvert it. You'll most often see this in the form of other characters disbelieving the weird and supernatural things that beset the protagonist, but sometimes the story goes beyond that. The way that the story is told, you can be questioning everything that you see or are told by the author, by the characters, by the atmosphere of the tale. Particularly in a good psychodrama or surrealist horror, you're left wondering if anything is real at all, specifically thinking here of works like Carnival of Souls, The Lighthouse, or Jacob's Ladder.

The Red Mother by Jeremy Haun, Danny Luckert, and Ed Dukeshire reminds me of stories in that vein. It started with a late night attack on Daisy and her boyfriend, Luke, in the first issue. With Luke disappearing and Daisy losing one of her eyes. As she tries to deal with the loss, she starts seeing the world in red and an odd metal-faced demon thing seems to be stalking her. The Red Mother #2 builds on that further with Luke appearing to Daisy at night, maybe in a dream, maybe not, and the switches between normal reality and the red reality continue. You could definitely take it at face value, accept everything that you're seeing as truth, but there's a nice level of uncertainty that Haun and Luckert are seeding within the dialogue and the artwork. That there are questions as to whether Luke just ran off on his own, if Daisy's medications for her lost eye and trauma are causing hallucinations, even if her nightmare is just a nightmare, and all of that makes discovering what's ultimately going on here very compelling. It will probably be revealed that due to her injury Daisy is viewing a new side of reality, but the way that Luckert switches between the two in the artwork, makes you wonder if the monster is real.

Throughout, Luckert's artwork is gorgeous. He has incredible gifts for facial expressions, character designs, and pacing, all of which were honed to perfection in his previous horror series with Cullen Bunn, Regression. This comes through very nicely here. Possibly even better. I particularly love Luke's appearance as he's only kind of there, with the edges of his being floating away through smoke and what might be shadow, depicted as dispersing black circles. It's a really neat effect that helps reinforces the illusory, dream-like nature of the scene. This is enhanced further through Ed Dukeshire utilizing what's almost a thought balloon. It's a freeform balloon with bubbles leading all over the place, making it feel like the voice itself is unfixed. Quite a unique approach.

Overall, whether you believe everything you see in The Red Mother #2 is real or not, it is some absolutely solid horror storytelling from Haun, Luckert, and Dukeshire. Daisy's plight and confusion through what's going on is incredibly compelling and you'll be hooked by the mystery.

The Red Mother #2
Writer: Jeremy Haun
Artist: Danny Luckert
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.