Simon Dark #7 - DC

The picture's starting to become a little clearer with this issue. This group . . kind of a cross between the mob and a cabal . . has made it's move. Last issue we saw that they high-jacked a delivery truck. It was for a small company that makes and delivers hand-made soaps. They wanted to switch the normal delivery for one of their own. There's a slew of soaps floating around Gotham that look like they have little demons captured inside of them. The user uses them, and the demons work their way inside of their bodies and turn them in to zombies, or, what looks like, someone with the black-plague. Then, I guess, they go out and try to perform as much carnage as possible before they're captured. Although I'm not sure what this group hopes to obtain by instigating this mayhem. Anyways, Beth, the ME has come across a couple of the bodies, but she doesn't really know what to make of them, so she gives a ring to Kirk, the Detective. He doesn't know exactly what going on, but, somehow, he knows that Simon is the key. Speaking of which, when Simon returns to his home, under the cemetery, he finds Rachel waiting there for him. Simon's returned with a book of incantations, which he needs ingredients for, and Rachel has offered to help. We also see that Simon's face is a blank slate. I think, somehow, it's hooked in to the psychic nature of whomever he's around, and he can appear in whatever fashion makes them comfortable. If that's what he wants. I assume, if he can do that, he can tune in to their dark nature also and be whatever scares them. That's just my guess right now, though. We also see that, when Beth and Kirk go back to the Morgue to examine a victim, after they die their form returns to normal. Probably because there's nothing there for the demon to attach itself to. Again, that's just my guess. To me, the measure of a story is how much it makes you think about after you've read it. In that case, this is truly a tremendous story, because, afterwards, I'm still trying to figure out how all of the pieces fit together. I think I kind of have a picture of what's going on, but . . it still feels like there's a few pieces missing. However, I still have to give Steve Niles huge props for putting together a story like this. I think it's fantastic. Couple that with Scott Hampton's incredible drawings, and we have one heck of a book here. As I'm looking at it this issue . . I could almost see it being a movie. The problem with that though, is that they'd have to resolve things a lot sooner to maintain the time restraints. The luxury of this medium is having the time and space to draw out the mystery and suspense and truly developing the characters. I think this is a great addition to the DC library. I'm just wondering why it's not a Vertigo book?