About the comic: “After the harrowing attack at the precinct, Langford and Jensen continue to follow the tenuous leads they’ve uncovered, traversing deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of the Witness cult. But will they find the kidnapped children before Patient Zero strikes again?“

About the film: “On the trail of a missing girl, an ex-cop comes across a secretive group attempting to summon a terrifying supernatural entity.”

I hadn’t realized until The Empty Man released for home viewing recently, that it was based off of the BOOM! Studios series of the same name. So in typical Angel fashion, I grabbed Volume One on Comixology, devoured it, and then we immediately bought the movie to watch.

Overall, I enjoyed both the comic and the film. There was quite a difference in several ways, but you could feel the connection to each other. In many ways, I think having read The Empty Man first aided me in filling in any gaps there may be to viewers watching it without foreknowledge. And I appreciated that I was watching the movie in the area it’s set in, but also that on a map later in the movie, they show the town I live in, which was pretty exciting for me.

The Empty Man comic was set further along in the time line, with different cases being focused on, but in the movie they kept a similar investigative feel, just in a smaller scale. As with most adaptations, there was a lot of information to cram in, and even with a run time of over two hours, there were a lot of things left out. I was they could have further explored some of the more fantastical aspects, but I’m sure the budget wouldn’t allow for that level of fx/CGI needed.

But there was a lot of holding back. I would have enjoyed more horror elements in the movie. Many times while reading The Empty Man, my jaw dropped from the disturbing elements. So I had hoped for more of those moments while watching.

In the end, both are worth enjoying. The Empty Man is definitely a comic series I need to finish reading, now, and the movie is definitely one I’d rewatch.

Have you watched The Empty Man? Are you familiar with Cullen Bunn’s The Empty Man series?

-Angel