Written by: Sam Santiago
We’ve been following Clive Barker’s Hellraiser universe for a long time, especially through BOOM! Studios’ previous run of adaptations, and it is safe to say we were more than a little hooked on where that version of the mythos was heading. So when BOOM! decided to open the box again, we were already halfway braced for impact.
Now they are going even bigger.
Our friends over at Bloody Disgusting were the first with the news about these five new stories with Hellraiser: Resurrections, a new slate of one shot comics set to hit this fall, each one peeling back another layer of Barker’s infamous hellscape. This new wave of stories is being shaped under Barker’s creative oversight alongside BOOM!’s editorial direction, and it looks like the Cenobites are about to get very busy again.
Each week in September will bring a fresh descent into pain and obsession, with a rotating lineup of writers and artists digging into different corners of Hell’s hierarchy. The result is a stacked anthology of standalone nightmares that still connect into a larger descent.
The opening chapter, New Wounds, comes from Mike Costa and Paco Camallonga and kicks things off with a familiar nightmare trigger, the infamous Puzzle Box. Of course, it does what it always does, and things spiral fast.
Then things get even stranger with The Onanistic Ritual from Zac Thompson and Gavin Mitchell, where the Chatterer is back in focus, teeth and all, chasing his place in the Hell Priest’s order with a mission that sounds like anything but mercy.
The Deep Gospel from Tini Howard and Jenna Cha drags readers into the brutal afterlife of the Female Cenobite, who finds herself pulled back into the Nidus, a place where Cenobites are not born so much as forged through survival.
Hell’s Council from Nero Villagallos O’Reilly and Francesca Ciregia shifts the lens to Butterball, last seen in Hellbound: Hellraiser II, now being pulled into a disturbing game of care, manipulation, and something that might pass for affection in Hell.
Finally, The Return of the Priest from Sarah Gailey and Alessio Avallone brings Elliot Spencer back into focus as he confronts Leviathan’s light and the transformation that follows, setting the stage for the Hell Priest to reshape himself once again.
Taken together, Resurrections feels like both a return and an escalation, revisiting familiar Cenobites while dragging the mythology into new and more uncomfortable territory. If BOOM! keeps pushing in this direction, fall is going to be nothing but a steady march through the bowels of Hell, one issue at a time.