It’s the best issue of Nailbiter in a while as Williamson wraps up his first arc. He’s set up the series now–Finch, the visitor, isn’t just staying but now there’s new shocking new information about him. Williamson, for better or worse, seems to be positioning the series–with its variety of characters but relatively few locations–for a TV series option.

There’s some rather good art from Henderson in the issue. He doesn’t do particularly well with the action sequences, but those missteps might be due to the silliness (the latest serial killer is dressed as some kind of Neolithic warrior); but the regular talking scenes are quite good.

There’s foreshadowing, there’s fake resolution (for every window Williamson closes he opens a couple doors) and there’s the titular nail biting serial killer playing hero. It’s entirely artificial, but so well executed it doesn’t matter. Williamson pulls the strings well.

Nailbiter isn’t exactly an incomplete read, it’s just three scenes. There’s the ominous prologue, there’s the main action with the two protagonists and then there’s the titular serial killer in his jail cell.

Henderson is getting a little loose with the art, especially during the main action, which doesn’t help things. All in all, the comic actually feels like a quarter of a one hour television show. The cliffhanger isn’t so much worthy of a month long wait as of a three or four minute commercial break.

Another problem is how Williamson has eschewed character development for revelations. His protagonists aren’t developing their relationship together, they’re making expository statements to one another. Even the big reveal flops because Williamson has introduced so many revelations–two to three more in the last six pages of this issue–it’s hard to keep up.

The comic’s entirely lost its texture at this point.

No, really, where’s the rest of the comic?

Williamson is only a few issues in with Nailbiter and he’s already losing some of the sensationalism. Instead of outrageous characters, he’s going for outrageous acts. But not even startling outrageous acts, just kind of average ones. Like there are these constant brownouts in the city and a serial killer pops in and out during one of them.

Sadly, Henderson composes the sequence in a long distance profile, which isn’t the best way to get tension going. Maybe that lack of tension is the problem–Nailbiter seems too safe. Even though I think someone else died this issue. It’s a little unclear.

There are a lot of scenes, but none really stick out, which is another problem. Henderson doesn’t have the space to make the town into a character this issue; Williamson is just moving too fast.

He needs to luxuriate some more.

It’s hard to say when being self indulgent is the right movie. Even with a good writer–and Williamson is a good writer–it can go wrong. It goes wrong this issue of Nailbiter. Williamson spends way too much time on the interview with the famous serial killer and lets this guy overshadow the protagonist.

The best scene in the issue is the protagonist and the sheriff talking over dinner. Even with some forced exposition into the famous serial killers of the town. Wait a second, A Voice in the Dark has a town full of serial killers too… maybe it’s going to be Image’s new thing instead of superheroes; serial killers.

Anyway, there’s a showdown scene with the townspeople, which is a waste of pages except to foreshadow. Then there’s the issue’s villain meeting up with the secret big boss.

The comic’s got good art, good scene writing, but it meanders.

The parts of Nailbiter work better, for the first issue anyway, than the whole. Writer Joshua Williamson introduces the very silly idea of an epicenter of serial killers; while the Pacific Northwest does (or did) produce the most serial killers, Williamson localizes it to one very strange town.

He's able to make it work thanks to artist Mike Henderson. Henderson makes the creepiness work, but also the stranger in a strange land thing work. The lead character is a disgraced Army cop who's in town looking for his buddy. His buddy is another cop of some kind researching the place. The buddy's one of the issue's problems. Williamson doesn't show enough to sell the relationship.

But it doesn't matter because the Army cop is such a strong character. And the setting's great.

Williamson closes it with a big reveal–Nailbiter's really goofy premise. Not just the town, but even more.