Comic Reviews 6/5

As promised a week or two back, I’m reviewing some books that are outside the usual super-hero titles from the Big Two I normally stick to.

First up from DC’s Vertigo imprint is I, Zombie…

I, Zombie 1

Roberson and Allred launch a new ongoing series, hoping to be the next big hit. Vertigo have the evergreen Hellblazer and the frankly fantastic Fables, but have been short on significantly successful ongoing series since the finales of 100 Bullets and Y: The Last Man.

This series is set in Eugene, Oregon, where the supernatural and the extraordinary are a lot more common than the general population think. Gwen, our protagonist, is the titular zombie and works as a gravedigger. To keep her undead hunger at bay, and retain her personality, Gwen has to consume a human brain once a month. Fortunately, her job gives her illicit access to (relatively) fresh human brains whose owners won’t notice them missing. Gwen’s circle of friends includes Ellie, the ghost of a young woman who died during the 1960’s and Spot, who is a were-terrier(!). Gwen seems to have little to no memory of her life before her death and runs whenever she sees anyone she recognises but can’t remember why.

Also in the first issue, we meet two mysterious agents for “The Corporation” who appear to be on a mission to eradicate any undead they find and we find out that the local paintball venue is staffed by a femme fatale vampire. As Gwen eats this month’s grey matter, she gets flashes of the dead man’s life. His memories overlay on top of her own and she feels driven to solve the mystery of his death, so that he’ll find peace.

Allred’s art is a good fit for the book. He’s got a real knack for facial expressions with a frugal style. There’s no wasted lines, but it never feels spares or simplistic. As an intro to the characters and concept, this is a great issue. There’s a good balance of introductory exposition and plot development. The cliffhanger is good enough to make me want to buy the next issue, which is the idea really.

GI Joe: Cobra II 4

IDW Publishing re-launched the GI Joe franchise a little under eighteen months ago, choosing to ignore the long-standing Marvel continuity and the Devil’s Due continuity that followed on from it. By starting from the ground up, IDW have added some new twists to what could otherwise have been a very formulaic and clichéd concept. The core book of GI Joe was joined by GI Joe: Origins, spotlighting individual members of the team, and GI Joe: Cobra, which was arguably the biggest surprise and most satisfying read.

GI Joe: Cobra (Hereafter GIJC for brevity’s sake) starred a Joe agent codenamed “Chuckles” who was dispatched by his commander to infiltrate a terrorist group and try to discover who was bankrolling them, if the urban myth of Cobra was true. Chuckles differs from the rest of the Joes shown in the franchise as he’s not squeaky clean, not even close. He’s picked for the mission due to his being able to see the grey areas that others within the group might not.

Christos Gage’s plotting is extremely good and light years away from the gung-ho style of storytelling that Chuck Dixon is pursuing in the main GI Joe title. If you tell someone that the villains of the piece are a terrorist group whose footsoldiers are all named after various ophidian creatures, they’re going to laugh at you. Somehow, Gage has made Cobra into a credible terrorist threat. He shows you the financing side, the subtle destabilising efforts they apply to nation-states, not just the paramilitary action sequences. He makes the characters more than just moustache twirling pantomime villains, giving them more depth than they’ve ever been given previously.

The art is similarly a world away from the more traditional style on the main book. Here, everything is very stark, almost minimalist by comparison. Facial expressions are very effective and clear but never over-stated. The use of shadows and close-ups work is also very well done.

This issue was supposed to be the end of the second mini-series exploring Cobra from Chuckles’ point of view, but the series has proven to be such a success that it is being made into an ongoing. This issue ends with a helluva a cliffhanger, leaving our “hero”, such as he is, face to face with the most notable absentee from the current Joe series. While I’ve long since stopped reading the Origins series and am losing patience with the main book, GIJC has still got me hooked and eagerly awaiting the next issue every month. Plus, Howard Chaykin covers! Wooo!