It was bad enough being in America when the dead started rising in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, how much worse would it have been in Viet Nam? That’s the premise behind this new Image one-shot but 25 pages just isn’t enough time to fully explore the idea. Characters assume that the dead are rising everywhere without any real reason to in order to propel the story along. Writer Mark Kidwell is clearly a fan of Romero’s classic and with more time, maybe a four issue series, he would have been able to turn the soldiers into real people that the reader could care about. As it is they die every other page and we don’t give a damn, it leaves you wondering if everything was built backwards from the final in-joke reference to Night of the Living Dead. Nat Jones art is good with some nice gruesome deaths. Jones is a horror comics regular and also a fan of Romero’s work (you’ll fine a painting of Bub from Day of the Dead on his My Space page) and it’s this love of the genre that really comes through. Grade: C+
Black Panther 23
Reginald Hudlin treats us to a pointless fight between the Panther and Captain America and more black guys are good white guys are evil silliness. The perfect example is pages 3 and 4; on page 3 we see T’Challa at Bill (Goliath) Foster’s funeral with his grieving family while on page 4 we get a look at some white politicians who are mostly stereotypical bigots. I used to like the Black Panther as a character but Hudlin is really turning me off. Koi Turnbull‘s art depicts T’Challa as less lithe cat and more big ape. He’s supposed to move with feline grace but here he has more in common with the Hulk. Grade: C-
Crossing Midnight 1&2
This comes across as a sort of an adult Japanese Narnia, with talking dragons instead of lions. The two main characters, brother and sister twins, are engaging and it’s nice to have the female as the more strong willed of the two. Mike Carey clearly knows a thing or two about Japanese life and mythology and that gives the story an authentic feel. Jim Fern’s clean line work is beautifully inked by Rob Hunter in issue 1 and Mark Pennington in 2. Fern’s particularly good at faces, capturing the character with a minimum amount of work and rendering them instantly recognisable. Grade: B
Article comments
1 - Wotan
Concerning DOCTOR FATE, the following article on his 1960's revival may be of interest:
2 - Aku
Thanks. I have been looking or a comic to pick up of late (It has been a looong time). I might give one or two on your list a try.