Written by Kevin Van Hook, Aaron Lopresti & Kevin Maguire
Illustrated by Jerry Ordway, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan & Kevin MaguireWelcome to one of the weirdest titles DC has ever assembled — 6 issues filled with stories of monsters, ghouls and far-out cosmic craziness!
Each month, you’ll be treated to new 10-page chapters in three exciting serials. In this debut issue, Kevin Van Hook and Jerry Ordway bring you the continuing adventures of Lobo, everyone’s favorite Czarnian (after all, he’s the only one left, so he’d better be your favorite.) Aaron Lopresti introduces you to his newest creation, the kind-hearted monster called Garbageman. And Kevin Maguire takes you to the farthest reaches of outer space with the introduction of a hero called Tanga!
Wrap it all up in a cover by the amazing Justiniano, and you’ve got a truly monstrous hit on your hands! These artists are letting their freak flags fly — join them, why don’t you?
While I’m not usually the biggest fan of anthology books, I AM a big fan of Jerry Ordway, Kevin Maguire and Aaron Lopresti. Together they make up some of the best illustrating talent the industry has running today (and yesterday, given the insanely long careers of Ordway and Maguire), plus it features two all new weird sounding/cosmic characters and everyone’s favorite bastich, Lobo! Click below to see my thoughts on the debut issue.
It would be kind of impossible and, indeed, defeat the purpose, to review this issue as a whole rather than review it story by story, as each of them are completely self contained.
Starting off with the Lobo story by Van Hook and Ordway, this story was short, sweet and bloody. It almost functioned like a crash course in Lobology for the uninitiated, as a misinformed bounty hunter brags on and on about how he killed Lobo while they both were in pursuit of the same mark, while still in the presence of Lobo’s bleeding body. Now, I’ve read maybe five or six total Lobo comics in my time, but even I know that a plasma rifle shot to the brain is not enough to take him down, hence knowing the fate of the bounty hunter while he was shooting off his mouth was a bit of a treat. That said, while I knew Lobo would beat the holy hell out of the guy, what I literally could never have predicted Lobo ripping the dude’s jaw off and beating him to death with it. That is just ALL class and boy did Ordway make it look good. 35 years in the business has certainly taught him a thing or two about sequential art and this story continued to prove what a monumental influence he is.
Moving into the second feature, both written and drawn by Aaron Lopresti, features the debut of the all new Garbageman character. I have to say, this is by far the weakest of the three stories this issue, as not only is the dialogue incredibly stocky and has very little flow to it, but the origin story of the character (innocent man experimented on by nefarious government types, turned into a monster and left for dead) was also pretty cliche. Now, that isn’t to say comics can’t use the same conventions as were used in the past, but I’m really not buying it this time. Nothing about this story or the character compels me all that much, I’m afraid. That said, I have been a long time fan of Lopresti’s work and his crisp, immediately identifiable pencils were impeccable with this story.
Last but not least we have the first appearance of brand new character Tanga, written and drawn by Kevin Maguire. Now, it is massively rare that established illustrators who work only on pencils for years create compelling narratives when they step into the writer’s role. Tony Daniel and David Finch are just two of the most recent examples of that tactic not working. However it seems that the large amount of time Kevin Maguire has spent bringing Keith Giffen’s words to life had a very large impact as this tale ended up being the strongest of the three. As she ventures through space, trying to find intelligent life to, apparently, just talk to, the exceptionally wordy Tanga encounters a mysterious ship that proceeds to attack her and attempts to imprison her. Its at this point, though a fantastically beautiful splash page, that we learn just how powerful of a character she is and start to think there may be a reason she’s so alone. Of the three, this is the only story I can honestly say I’m curious to see where it goes.
Overall, there are a few closing comments I can give on this book. While none of the stories are particularly to die for, Lobo and Tanga are both pretty fun and at least Garbageman looks nice. However, if you were to ask me if this is essential reading, I’d probably have to go with no. Overall, I feel this series is going to function more as an artists showcase rather than a set of compelling stories, but thats okay when the pictures are as pretty as they were in this issue.
Final Verdict: 7.9 – Browse/Buy
