From Image Comics, Michael Moreci, Steve Seeley, Emilio Laiso, Rosario Costanzo, Jim Campbell, Sean Dove, and Joe Eisma

Issue number five of Hoax Hunters closes out the story arc in a fashion that’s very unconventional, but done well. The story begins in 1967 at the Burlington County Orphanage  in New Jersey, as the “Jersey Devil” is given a modern update. From there, the story involves a girl names Lauren Reynolds and her connection to the creature. As the years fly by, and a series of murders begin to occur in the 1980’s, Lauren suspects the creature, as it’s haunted her dreams and torn up her car. The truth though is more disarming and a little heartwarming too.

As the bulk of this comic focuses on Lauren and her experiences, the initial reaction of the reader may be “what the deuce,” but Moreci and Seeley do a great job tying it back to Jack, our leader of the Hoax Hunter team and to his involvement with his father, the man that Jack is so desperately trying to find after gathering clues from the last set of Hoax Hunters. In a way, this issue serves as a one-shot closing to the story arc established in the first four issues. It doesn’t add much to the next story arc, which seems to be heading in the direction of finding Jack’s dad, but it does add a lot more to the series’ mythology and introduces a new character that I can only think will play a role in future issues.

The Hoax Hunters team pushes out another stellar issue this month. The trade will be coming out December 5th, and if you haven’t been on board yet, I highly recommend you pick it up and it’s around $10 over at Amazon, can you honestly go wrong?. What I like most about Hoax Hunters is that it dwells in a Fact or Faked kind of world, with the mentality of Myth Busters and the method of Men in Black. It’s many things at the same time; always creative and original in its interpretations of the unknown and the cryptic. Simply put, Hoax Hunters is one of the top 5 new comics of 2012.