Weekly Dose Of Weird!

Secrets Of Haunted House #6 -- Didn't Luke Cage fight this guy once?

I. "The Contest" -- (Frame Story) Destiny welcomes Cain and Abel into his Garden to spin stories to frighten mortals, and we shall be the judges.

II. "Grave Situation" -- A posh Londonite vampire awakens after a short nap and tries to find a pretty girl to dine with. All he gets is a double dose of woman's lib, followed by a bothersome bit of sunlight -- eclipses are bad like that.

III. "A Deadly Allegiance" -- All-around bad guy Peter is partners with the mysterious torture master Mr. Black. They retrieve information about the whereabouts of a payroll heist from one victim, then Peter eliminates the rest of his gang, leaving him and Mr. Black to get the loot. But when they find the loot, it's booby trapped, and Peter is suddenly left alone... betrayed by his cloven-hoofed compatriot.

IV. "Valley Of The Giants" -- Rurik the Viking raids the English countryside but feels they are unworthy of a challenge. An old soothsayer predicts doom for the Viking at the hands of giants. Defiant, the Vikings sail off, only to be caught in a storm and wind up in Arabia. There they leave of a lost city of ivory, deep in the Valley of the Giants. Rurik leads his mean into the valley, where they are ambushed and slaughtered by tiny pygmies. Truly, there were giants in the valle,y but they were the victims, not the executioners.

Overall Weird Rating: 2 (out of 5).

Secrets of Haunted House ran for about 7 years, but it's lack of name recognition amongst its DC stablemates makes it more obscure. Most fans only know of Destiny reading his book from Gaiman's Sandman. But this is a perfectly servicable horror/mystery comic, although the last segment is the least interesting but longest, so that is a strike against it. Oddly, though Destiny introduces a challenge between Cain and Abel, saying that he cannot tell a story, only to measure one's fate, he introduces that third feature. Go fig!