EMPIRE of the DEAD / DEADLY CLASS / DEAD BODY ROAD [Reviews]: …On Arrival
EGOs #1 – Stepping back from the new releases for a minute and taking the time machine all the way back to last week, I wanted to make sure Image’s EGOs from last week wasn’t overlooked. Take a little bit of Abnett and Lannings late Boom series The Hypernaturals, mix in some hard sci-fi elements, a dash of the Legion Lost, bong hits, superheroics, and marital drama, and you get Stuart Moore (Wolverine Noir, The 99) and Storms’ debut issue of EGOs. It is a fun trip into the future of super science and dimension hopping. Moore has written an engaging and witty intro into this new world. Artist Gus Storms does an excellent job with his layouts and pacing. He has a simple, scratchy style reminiscent of Nick Pitarra’s work on The Manhattan Projects. For his first comic book work, not too shabby at all. I wasn’t sure what to expect with EGOs, and while there is definitely room for it to stretch further beyond its influences, consider me hooked. It is a solid start that looks to only expand upon the ambitions hinted at in this first peek into a cool fantasy future. 3.25/5.
The future is indeed.. a Moody one.
Zero #5 – Following the unrelenting brutality of the fight between Zero and Carlyle from last issue, the title character in this futuristic spy-fi tale is bruised, bloodied, and spends issue 5 mostly in the company of his handler Zizek. This issue continues the experiment of having every issue drawn by a different artist. If you haven’t picked up the series yet, that notion may seem jarring. But while there is an underlying thread throughout Zero’s tale, each issue is set up to be a free standing piece. A quieter issue, but no less revealing, things begin in 2038 where things began in issue 1. Will Tempest’s style serves as the perfect complement to the quiet feel of this issue, also drawing one damn creepy gaping eyehole. Jordie Bellaire’s use of a soft palette of blues, grays, brown, green, and all the other colors of the Banana Republic fashion spectrum, are an inspired choice. As for the story, while Ales Kot (Wild Children) lets the reader breathe a little bit, Zero is put through a series of mental tests and stressful questioning to determine if he is still a viable asset to the Agency. The issue ends on a perfectly Fringe-like moment, as the series will see its first trade collection next month before #6 drops in March. 3.5/5.
