Written by Rachel Freeman
Ahhh. There’s nothing quite like a good dose of horror to start off your comic week. Demons, creepy mind-control, and of course, your typical high school drama. All things that make for an excellent horror story. And here we are on issue #3, we’re starting to understand what this is all about. The ritual, the eerie shadows following Christian around, and what the kids are even getting out of it: crazy powers.
If you haven’t read any of The Circle yet, then you’re wrong and you should rethink your reading choices. I’m only sort of kidding (heh). But seriously, you should pick it up. Anyway, so the story is about a teenage boy named Christian. He and his father move to a small town after the tragic death of his mother. Despite proving to be an athlete and making the basketball team, Christian is harassed by other jocks at his school, but is befriended by a group of outcasts. They have a cool secret cave hideout, they seem pretty chill and like a good group, well, until they start talking about a weird ritual. And reading an even weirder book. Christian wants to make new friends, but he’s walking in to something very sinister in the process.
WARINING: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE CIRCLE ISSUES 1 AND 2, THE FOLLOWING WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS
Ok, so all of the weirdness and occult-like activity has finally confirmed our suspicions. It wasn’t just the robes or the scary book or the wine that may or may not have been blood, no, the massacre of homeless people really solidified just how far these kids are willing to go. Christian never wanted any of this though, but being drugged doesn’t matter to the devil. The point is, Christian participated, he may have not directly killed anyone, but he definitely stabbed. He’s a teenager though, a teenager who just wants to be accepted. So of course, when Phoebe (it has to be the cute and seemingly innocent girl to break down the tension.
Sorry, but it does work in real life and you know it) sits down with Christian and shows off her cool new power, she pretty easily convinces him to at least come to the hang out and give them all a chance to talk. Bad decision. Phoebe isn’t the only one who has been honing her powers though. Daniel is one dude who I would not want to cross paths with. His mind-control power also makes total sense, he’s clearly the leader of the group and he is all about knowledge, so it all adds up. Daniel has no qualms using his mind control on his “friends” either, as we see first hand. Falling further into the rabbit hole, Christian is getting closer to losing his soul.
Pros: I just love Christian’s character so much. He is completely believable to me. I don’t care who you are, it’s hard to walk away from your friends, even if they did something fucked up. Especially when they’re literally your only friends. You can see the hesitation Christian has when talking to Phoebe, but he wants to believe the worst is over and that things can go back to normal. And it’s not like he just immediately becomes all buddy-buddy with them again. He shows up to give them the benefit of the doubt, only to literally get pushed into a hole. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone, he’s a good kid. Who got drugged and forced to murder people, you’d be traumatized and wishfully seeking normalicy too.
Even more so, Christian retains his personality, his soul, through all of this. It tells us that he is going to be strong. And maybe he’ll lose his soul in the end, but he’s not just going to give it to the devil because he gets superpowers. He also isn’t OP. Like, he doesn’t suddenly go all Super Saiyan on everyone and kick their ass. No, he’s scared out of his mind, as he should be, and runs.
Cons: Why did it have to be Christian’s high school crush? I mean, clearly Daniel is a psycho, but that doesn’t really explain why he would target Christian. Also, its not like Trisha has been super nice or helpful to Daniel, they’re not close (that we’ve seen), so while it’s clearly jarring to him, I think that would be the case if it was anyone he knew. I also wonder why they wouldn’t have picked a bully. I mean, they want Christian to participate, so why not pick someone he would actually consider stabbing? Then again, I don’t fully understand how this stuff works yet. From my knowledge of horror movies, sometimes you need like a “close to your heart” sacrifice and sometimes it doesn’t matter, just have to be bloody. We’ll just have to wait and see!
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5 / 10
Solid issue. We get one answer and then 3 more pop up. It just makes me want to read more, I need to know. I need to know who this little old Hispanic woman is, I need to know what all their powers are, I need to know what the shadows are! Seriously, excellent issue and one you should definitely check out. So make sure to pick up a copy from your local comic store!
Happy reading!
