Writer: Mark Wheatley
Artist: Marc Hempel
Colorist: Mark Wheatley & Kathryn Mix
Letterer: Marc Hempel & Kathryn Mix
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: $29.99
Release Date: September 2, 2026
Chase Darrow doesn’t want to touch Paul Raymond again. But a week has passed, and she hungers for his love. While Chase tells herself that she must control her needs, Paul feels isolated and shunned. He cannot disguise his emaciated appearance as he climbs from the hot tub. So, when Paul appeals to her, Chase can no longer deny him.
When Paul embraces her, she sees the remaining life drain from his eyes. With his corpse clinging to her, Chase topples through the sunroom glass and onto the picturesque grounds surrounding Paul's mansion. Why did Paul Raymond die? And what will happen to Chase? Let's grab the latest issue of The Man comics, leap into The Breathtaker Collection HC, and see!
Story
As alarms reverberate across the gated property, Charlie Raymond finds Chase. Seeing his father's lifeless body, Charlie assures Chase that he will take care of everything. But as the security guards rush to their aid, Chase knows the police will arrive soon. She is so desperate to flee that Charlie promises to stall them and gives her his car keys. Grabbing a quick change of clothes, Chase roars away in Raymond's Lamborghini.
When Homicide Detective Cob investigates, he cannot help noticing Paul’s accelerated aging. While he wants to question Chase, he’s more interested in the delectations prepared by Raymond’s kitchen staff. Then The Man arrives. His handler, Agent Nardo, insists that Chase is the murderer. His government agency alerts the media to her guilt, insisting that anyone who sees her inform the authorities.
In The Breathtaker Collection HC, The Man's popularity has taken a hit recently. But Agent Nardo informs the network that ratings don't determine whether The Man's TV show continues. His agency will also ensure that The Man comics continue to fill the spinner racks, and shoppers at K-Mart and Toys R Us can purchase all the characters from their line of action figures. Parents may be concerned about The Man's recent meltdown. Branding Chase Darrow as a murderer and embarking on a nationwide Manhunt to find her is just what The Man needs to reinforce his dominance in the public sphere.
Mark Wheatley’s fast-paced story follows Chase’s flight for freedom and The Man's pursuit. Amid the media circus, men flock to Chase’s defense. Despite how men who get close to Chase tend to weaken and die, they hunger for her love as much as she needs them. Unlike Agent Nardo's claims about Chase in The Breathtaker Collection HC, she doesn’t want to hurt anyone. And she’s willing to risk anything to turn her life around.
Art
A dog leads a security guard along the driveway of a mansion perched on a gently sloping hill. Jutting eaves cast triangular patches of light on the darkened lawn. Inside the conservatory, floor-mounted TVs jut at angles toward the glass ceiling, allowing the inhabitants to watch the football game from any position. Chase looks forlorn as she keeps her distance from Paul. But when the skin-and-bones figure approaches, her fingers caress cheeks weathered like sandstone. After Paul's death, Chase's face betrays her remorse, barely able to face Charlie as he races to her and enfolds her in his arms. When she pulls away, distraught, Paul’s son regards her with a consoling, wistful expression.
Mark Wheatley and Kathryn Mix adorn Marc Hempel's edgy, avant-garde art with bright colors in The Breathtaker Collection HC. While purple and pink dominate, all the colors of the rainbow adorn their painted panels. The Man proves to be the perfect adversary for Chase. The stocky, larger-than-life “hero” leaps from airplanes without hesitation, chases down moving vehicles, rips doors off their hinges, and pries metal sheeting away from the vehicle's infrastructure. He faces every situation in a business suit and tie. The Man's circular sunglasses look small on his large head, while a dark widow's peak enhances his brawny appearance.
Marc Hempel and Kathryn Mix place handwritten uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons. Chase's lowercase cursive musings and the Man's printed uppercase thoughts appear in colored narrative boxes. Letter size varies in keeping with drama and action, while sound effects enhance this big-screen action epic. After the two-hundred-page saga, seventy pages of extras include looks back from the creators, process and cover art, and an issue of The Man comics series. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
Chase Darrow might live forever if she didn’t care about love. Yet her need for others haunts her, and she wastes away if she shuns other people. The Man regards the world with scorn. He has everything yet feels entitled to more. But when Chase and the Man meet, they discover they have more in common than at first appears in The Breathtaker Collection HC.
Rating 9.8/10
To look inside see my preview of The Breathtaker Collection HC.
