Time is running out for Callum Shah’s mission. Can Matt and the other survivors get off the island before the storm drowns it forever? Find out in Haunt You to the End #5 from Image Comics!

HAUNT YOU TO THE END #5

Writer: Ryan Cady
Artist: Andres Mutti
Letterer: Frank Cvetkovic
Editor: Elena Salceda and Matt Hawkins
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 11, 2023

Previously in Haunt You to the End: After Gersh falls to her death, the away team returns to the base. Padre Sandoval is alive but badly injured. The storm is blowing up and they all must leave the island before it is submerged. Gersh’s crew finds her transponder. They believe she is still alive, and they track her signal to the yacht. Maddi confides in Matt, telling him she came to find dirt on the company – and succeeded. She also tells him about the voices she heard. Shah overhears them, is convinced he is closer to learning more about the spirits, and decides to visit the Manor one last time. In the Manor, he is struck down by Sandoval who claims that the drowned souls of the dead are all around him. Matt, who followed Shah, steps in and the floor collapses under the three of them.

STORM WATERS RISING

As Haunt You to the End #5 opens, an injured Matt is back at the base, babbling about there being something stuck on the island. Shah, ever curious, wants to know what he is saying. Maddi tells him it is nothing. She tells Shah they must leave the island, but she figures that Gersh’s men have taken the boat by now. Shah tells her the plane has the best autopilot that money can buy. But can it fly through the storm?

That question is moot. Before they can attempt to get to the plane, Gersh blows it up. Shah looks at her and her men in horror. They have changed. They no longer look human. Gersh calls out to Shah to tell him his mission has been successful. He wanted to know more about the hereafter. She and her men have joined the ranks of the dead, and they know and understand those mysteries. She talks about the island itself not wanting to end any more than any of the people who have died here. She can show him the answers, if he joins her.

As she moves toward Shah, Matt grabs her knife and stabs her in the neck. She merely pulls the blade free and throws it at him. Then her men take Shah out into the storm. “Sink with us,” she tells him, echoing the voices of the dead.

But Maddi has made it to the boat. She fires upon the Manor, setting it aflame. Matt sees this gives him and Shah the opportunity to leave. Shah follows him, but regrets having no evidence to bring back with him. He remembers Matt’s camera rig. Matt says there is no time, but Shah searches the area and finds a data card. Then the spirit of the Padre rises up and tries to grab him. Matt pulls him free, and they race to the boat. Maddi helps Shah aboard first.

But Gersh has made it there too. But Matt strikes her with a knife. Shah makes it to the boat and Gersh is delayed just enough so that when the big wave hits, she and Matt go under. Matt realizes he is never going to get off the island, but, he has to believe, his story will survive.

IN A FLASH OF LIGHTNING

The art of Haunt You to the End #5 does a terrific job of capturing the power and destruction of the storm. The first panel is a bolt of lightning. The stark white of its light illuminates the frighteningly high tops of the waves that threaten to engulf the island imminently. The Manor is on high ground – but not for long. Even though Gersh brings the boat in closer so she can get Shah, it stays hidden in the turmoil of the rising waters. The explosion at the plane suddenly adds additional color to the gray mix from the story. The flames are a rather washed-out gold, not bright enough to defy the storm, but enough to further damage the Manor.

Gersh has always been depicted as a tough character, but as someone who is now undead, she is terrifying. Her spiky hair looks wilder in the blustery winds and her ever-present shades catch odd reflections from the lightning. Not only were her men loyal enough to look for her, but they were also loyal enough to accept their deaths at her hands. She approaches Shah with the confidence of an apex predator. Matt’s knife to her neck would have probably killed a normal person. She barely misses a beat when she pulls the blade out and hurls it back at him. She is as inexorable as the storm.

BOTTOM LINE: BENEATH THE WAVES FOREVER

Haunt You to the End #5 takes the dystopian ghost-hunter set-up and turns it into something desperate, something that feels much bigger than any of the characters who are drawn into the story. This makes for a read that is both full of tension and thoughtful.

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