3 out of 5

Why?  What an odd way to do things: a five issue mini-series with two essentially self-contained stories.  Sure, we get minis that highlight a character across standalone tales (the first Atomic Robo volume comes to mind), but Mignola and Golden set up their Joe Golem mini in such a way that certain over-arching elements stretch across the books – hints about our titular lead’s past as an actual golem via dreams – while issue 1-3 and issues 4-5 deal with wholly separate mysteries.  And I guess it wouldn’t be so strange if the tone wasn’t also so radically different between the tales, with Rat Catcher pretty grim and The Sunken Dead reading more like classic Hellboy – that is to say with a big ol’ grin while our hero is fearlessly punching zombies in the face.  So I don’t really get it, issuing the books as a set of 5.  Perhaps some kind of scheduling need I’ll never be aware of.

Anyhow, taken as its own thing, Sunken Dead is pretty fun.  Joe and his boss track down a surge of occult energy to a sciencey guy who’s decided to tack a ‘mad’ on to the beginning of that job description and use some ancient tomes to bring his wife back to life.  Alas, back-to-life spells aren’t choosy, and the whole town’s dead start to rise, and maybe they’re also zombies.  Joe Biff Bang and Booms his way to a conclusion.

Taken as a comparison piece, as mentioned, it feels weird.  And while Patric Reynolds heavy, murky art style worked with a more serious tone, it’s not well matched to Sunken Dead’s lighter sensibilities, nor does the artist handle big action set pieces all that well.

But: we’ll err toward the positive, as I’m left with enough interest to buy more Joe Golem should it surface.