Review: STAR WARS ADVENTURES: THE WEAPON OF A JEDI #2

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Star Wars Adventures: The Weapon of A Jedi #2 picks up the pace as dangers of the Eedit ruins and looming Imperial Forces drive Luke to quickly master the Force. Available now from IDW, this second installment is based on a novel by Jason Fry. It’s adapted by writer Alec Worley with art by Ruairi Coleman. Chris O’Halloran provides colors while Amauri Osorio and 49 Grad-Medienagentur contribute lettering.

Luke, C-3P0 and R2-D2 have entered the belly of the beast in the Eedit ruins. Though Imperial forces are on Luke’s trail, writer Worley devotes ample page time to Luke’s training. We get to see how doggedly Luke trains on his own with only his lightsaber and the memory of Ben Kenobi to guide him.

Luke staying awake for two nights to train in the Force is definitely crazy, yet somehow admirable. The stakes are personal for him. Understanding the Force is key to understanding his past and arms him against the Empire. Besides making for some great action sequences, Worley’s training-focused issue makes room for Jedi philosophy. Despite a few contrivances to hurry up the Imperial force’s pursuit, the issue is quite balanced with plot and character.

Using the Force

In the action sequences, Coleman gets to show off Luke’s lightsaber and some explosive effects. Coleman uses dark lines to emphasize the action. Furthermore, each lightsaber movement is drawn in exaggerated blue arcs. While the action lines work well for the sake of style and drama, the lightsaber arcs look too much like ribbons covering large sections of panels to be effective.

Use the Lightsaber — LUKE AND THE DROIDS ENTER THE RUINED TEMPLE.

The blue of the lightsaber posed a problem for the colorist, O’Halloran, as well. On page twelve, in a night scene already awash in blue and purple, one panel has a blue background behind the bright blue lightsaber, a blue dialogue bubble, and a special effect done in blue. Of course, blue is used deliberately, but maybe some shading would have prevented the dialogue and lightsaber from getting lost in the background. I almost mentally skipped over the panel without reading the dialogue because of the lack of contrast.

Other than the overuse of SFX, the above-mentioned panel exemplifies my only issue with Osorio’s and 49 Grad-Medienagentur’s lettering and design. These issues obstruct the action, slowing down the read from one beat to the next.

Despite such problems, Star Wars Adventures: The Weapon of A Jedi #2 manages to be a fun second issue. Luke has become the Jedi hero we recognize from the movies. The next step will be to challenge the Empire beyond a skirmish with some Storm Troopers. The Force is strong with us and with Luke as we face, head on, the next Star Wars adventure.

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Review: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #27—Enemy At the Gate

By

Elizabeth Buck

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There’s a new big bad in town and he’s unlike anything Buffy and the gang have ever faced. Available from Boom! Studios, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #27 is written by Jeremy Lambert with art by Carmelo Zagaria. Contributing colors and lettering are Raul Angulo and Ed Dukeshire respectively.

Lambert manages to insert a couple of twists per issue and #27 is no different. We finally learn how Dorothy, head of the Watcher Council, has a deeper connection to the Scooby Gang. But the biggest reveal was the new big bad, Silas. What’s funny about the latter reveal is Anya’s been saying it, but Giles doesn’t seem to believe her. It takes mishap in Ethan’s magic training with Willow to convince him.

These twists are especially exciting because of the amount of planting Lambert has done. No matter how frustrating the delayed reveals are, all suspense is worth the eventual twist. Besides, it’s the build up that makes the reveal even bigger than expected.

Expressionist

Big art follows big reveals. To that end, Zagaria draws with expressionistic flare. Each frown is accentuated with thin, scratchy lines. A stunning dream sequence in which Buffy’s fears are exposed feels straight out of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It’s all Dutch angles, rough shadows and stark expressions. Such dramatic and film-like choices heighten the terror and sadness of the story.

As issue #27 explores Buffy’s fear of death, Zagaria’s expressionistic choices suit its tone. After all, the stakes are apocalyptic now. Thus, Angulo’s colors reflect such depth of feeling. In Buffy’s dream sequence, dark green and red carve through the black background. Later, brown and blue dominate the palette. No colors are quite cold, but they’re not altogether warm. All this to say that the color heightens the emotion where appropriate. However, the palettes also imbue the book with a quality of earthiness. It’s at once grounded and surreal.

Enemy of the Mind — BUFFY’S GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST NIGHTMARE.

Dukeshire’s lettering, on the other hand, does the work of capturing a lighter energy in his dialogue bubbles. Contrasting the previous issue, he uses no SFX. Instead, Dukeshire uses lots of long, panel-hopping tails and overlapping bubbles to communicate the frenetic energy of the characters. He does especially well in breaking up extended sequences of dialogue—of which there are many. In that case, Dukeshire does quite a bit to brighten up the issue using very little, and without imposing upon the narrative and illustration.

Changes

With every change in illustrator or writer, I find myself appreciating the Buffy series as a whole even more. Each creator adds so much character and style that freshens up the story. This issue in particular feels the most tense and high stakes partly because of newcomer Zagaria.

Nonetheless, the tensest moments have yet to come as we still don’t quite know who Silas is. Whoever he is, he’s already done a lot of damage to the morale of the Scooby Gang. So, whoever takes on the art of the next issue, I hope we see Silas’ in all his ugly villain glory. The enemy’s at the gate, and all we have is the hope that Buffy’s strength will prevail over death.

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Review: ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS Fails To Retain Championship

By

Eric Trigg

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July 15, 2021

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions struggles to provide a tournament worth competing in. The original film was a subpar outing at best with a unique concept that blended the Saw and Final Destination franchises into one. Unlike its predecessor, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions opts for a more implausible narrative anchored by a new set of paper-thin protagonists. There’s fun to be had but not enough to ignore its glaring flaws and obsession with absurd storytelling.

With a clear goal to surpass Fast & Furious 9 as the most ridiculous movie of the year, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions passes that bar with flying colors. Escape Room didn’t overcomplicate its situation, but this sequel goes all-in with its outlandish plot contrivances. Directed by Adam Robitel and written by Will Honley, Daniel Tuch, Oren Uziel, and Maria Melnik. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions stars Logan Miller, Taylor Russell, Holland Roden, Indya Moore, Carlito Olivero, and Thomas Cocquerel. The film follows Minos survivors Zoe (Russell) and Ben (Miller) as they travel to New York City to bring the Minos corporation responsible for these escape rooms to justice. However, Zoe and Ben must join forces with other survivors after being caught in another elaborate game set up by Minos.

Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell) and Ben Miller (Logan Miller) in ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS.

Titling the film Tournament of Champions might seem peculiar while watching because outside of Zoe, these champions are questionable at best. More effort goes into establishing the new characters as clueless and confused, but viewers are told they somehow survived a previous Minos scenario. Very little information is provided to warrant caring about the fates of anyone besides Zoe and Ben. What is disclosed about them is irrelevant since it doesn’t relate to the bigger picture. One can feel no pain, one has a wife, and another has a religious background. The character development is nonexistent for the most part. Zoe has been in counseling and Ben has developed a crush on her but squanders any chance to make a move.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions becomes an unsolvable puzzle once Minos is established to be pulling several strings to ensure they get their way. If only there had been more focus on providing some new details about Minos so that this could even be remotely plausible. The film relies heavily on certain moments needing to go exactly as they should for Minos to get the upper hand, and horror fans will notice the resemblance it shares to some later Saw sequels. What’s worse is Zoe making horrific decisions towards the end of the film, but the film does manage to justify its absurdity as an elaborate scheme to put Zoe in this position. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions finds a lot of its strengths in its superb set designs and fast pacing. However, this same pacing is what holds the film back from allowing time to create interesting characters.

Indya Moore, Taylor Russell, Holland Roden in Escape Room 2

Robitel will have you wincing during certain shots and keeps the film very energetic as if there is some big payoff coming up, but it’s not a satisfying one. While the rapid pacing provides an edge of your seat experience, its thrills fall on deaf ears because no time is taken to make the audience care about these characters. Russell musters up a pleasing performance as Zoe, and some viewers will grow more attached to her since she feels like the only smart character during several sequences. Russell’s shy innocence that she brought to the character last time is mixed with newly found confidence in Zoe, as she works to put Minos out of business. The remaining performances are fine considering what they are given to work with, but Zoe is the most important piece to this puzzle.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions may have too many puzzle pieces that don’t fit, but it’s very entertaining to watch thanks to the elaborate set designs and humor that can be found in how bad the writing can be. Russell’s performance is enough to warrant enduring the film in its entirety, but the lack of care that goes into creating a coherent story makes this sequel very bad. It’s best to go into it prepared to get a nonsensical film and unfortunately, there seems to be an attempt to set the stage for a third entry.

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Review: GODZILLA RIVALS: VS. HEDORAH – A Perfect Human-Kaiju Balance

By

David Weber

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Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Hedorah, out now from IDW Publishing, is full of engaging kaiju action and human characters that are easy to care about.

When talking about Godzilla stories, people will go on and on about how they didn’t care for the plot involving humans, and they only want to see the giant monsters fighting each other. Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Hedorah will have you thinking differently, thanks to the incredible writing talents of Paul Allor. The first way that Allor makes the reader care for the human characters is by making them pivotal in the fight against the monsters while also putting them in a situation similar to average civilians suffering from the collateral damage of the kaiju’s battle. The issue follows Todd as he drives through the destruction of New York City during the conflict between Godzilla and Hedorah, trying to get an injured Dr. Kovats to a hospital because she is the only person who knows how to stop the kaiju. This combination of an important role and danger for the characters makes worrying about them easier. Another way that Allor endears us to the characters is through the casual manner they communicate with each other, showing the strong relationship they have. This happens when Dr. Kovats says that it isn’t “right” for Todd to save her, to which he replies by saying, “Okay, you ding dong.” It’s great to see characters still retaining a sense of humor in an otherwise intense and serious story. Allor’s excellent story goes far beyond creating likable characters. The issue contains several unexpected twists, heartbreaking moments, and stunning kaiju action.

From a comic book like Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Hedorah, the thing you’d expect most from the art are images of thrilling blows exchanged between the two kaiju, and E.J. Su delivers that and a whole lot more. The design used for Godzilla in the issue isn’t the most threatening, but Su makes both monsters absolutely terrifying by emphasizing their sheer size. One panel features foreshortening of Godzilla’s tail while it is a great distance away, and its size compared to our main characters helps the reader grasp how minuscule and helpless they must feel. Su also makes the characters’ faces highly expressive, making it easier to understand their emotions and empathize with them.

Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Hedorah is an intense experience because of Adam Guzowski’s coloring. Our first panels of New York City are given a realistic palette that reflects the grim nature of the destruction brought by the kaiju, but Guzowski’s talents shine brightest when not using a true-to-life palette. Guzowski continually uses single-colored or gradient backgrounds that don’t match the setting but instead reflect the tone of the moment. For example, a blood-red background when Godzilla is striking Hedorah adds an intensity to the moment that makes the issue more thrilling. Guzowski uses this technique many times, whether during the enormous fight scenes or important moments with the human characters.

Nathan Widick is not afraid to be bold with his lettering choices in Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Hedorah and the issue benefits significantly from this. For instance, when the main characters come close to being crushed by Godzilla, the sound effect “SMASH!” covers a large portion of the panel and extends past the panel’s borders, emphasizing the volume of sound resulting from this action. There is also a red outline surrounding each of the letters in the sound effects, which causes the scene to seem more violent.

Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Hedorah may be the best Godzilla comic I have ever read (and I’ve read a lot because I love kaiju.) There isn’t much Godzilla media that causes you to care so much about the human characters, and Su’s art does an impressive job of emphasizing the gargantuan size of the monsters.

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Review: SINISTER WAR #1 – More Villains Than You Could Hope For

By

David Weber

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Sinister War #1, out now from Marvel Comics, is an intense arc filled to the brim with villains you love and is pointing the storyline towards some significant changes in Spider-Man’s life.

Nick Spencer has done a brilliant job answering questions throughout his run as he has raised new ones. There is a twist in the midst of being revealed and another being developed at any given point, resulting in a continuously engaging series. This is also true of Sinister War #1, which entertains readers through the number of villains appearing and heavily advancing the story of Kindred that has been present throughout Spencer’s run. Every time we get a small understanding of what is going on, a new revelation appears that completely offsets it. One problem with having such a large cast of characters is that we don’t have the chance to spend much time with many of them outside of bombastic fight scenes. It’d be insane to expect individual focus on each of the villains present in the issue. Still, there are questions to explore with Doc Ock, the Lizard, and Mysterio that were barely touched on because the focus was more on characters punching each other.

Sinister War #1 relies heavily on the art. With so many insane fight scenes full of iconic characters, the quality of the issue is mainly dependent on the pencils of Mark Bagley and the inks of Andrew Hennessy, John Dell, and Andy Owens. This group turns Sinister War #1 into the enthralling experience that it is and brings to life many of your favorite villains. There’s plenty of brilliant splash pages that are sure to wow the reader, and whenever there is combat, the poses are impressively dynamic. Of course, this is all without mentioning techniques used, such as a character overlapping a panel’s border, which causes the reader to feel more immersed in the issue.

Brain Reber’s colors in Sinister War #1 do justice to the iconic villains present in the issue. He keeps the palette deeply vibrant so that the tone of a scene doesn’t dull the character’s colorful costumes, which allows for some stunning splash pages. Of course, when a scene’s mood changes drastically, the palette will change to reflect, but the costumes are a priority for Reber, which is highly important when dealing with such flashy villains.

VC’s Joe Caramagna once again shows off his brilliant lettering talents in Sinister War #1. Methods such as changing the color of a font to show that a character is otherworldly or increasing the width of a speech bubble to emphasize a line of dialogue are in constant use. Whenever Caramagna creates captions for sound effects, he always does so in a way that the direction of the sound moves with the reader’s eyes across the page, allowing for the issue to flow smoothly.

Sinister War #1 is a fun excuse to see a massive portion of Spider-Man’s rogue gallery engaged in combat. Still, it also does a phenomenal job of moving forward Spencer’s story of Kindred. If you’re a fan of Spencer’s run of Spider-Man or a fan of Spidey’s villains, you do not want to miss this story.

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LOKI – For All Time. Always. | TV Review

By

Kieran Freemantle

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July 15, 2021

The first season of Loki has reached its climax with “For All Time. Always.” It’s a finale that has huge implications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as Loki.

Loki and Sylvie have arrived at the Citadel at the End of Time and prepare to confront the person behind the TVA and Time Keepers. They discover a person referenced to as He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) and attempts to reason with the Lokis. At the TVA Mobius and Hunter B-15 reveal Ravonna Renslayer’s real identity.

“For All Time. Always.” was a talky episode which makes it different to the finales for WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier which were more action-ordinated. But that doesn’t mean that “For All Time. Always.” lacked intrigue or interest because it was jammed-packed with ideas! Fans of wacky sci-fi who are into ideas about time travel, alternative universes, and moral dilemmas will enjoy this episode.

Loki, Sylvie, and their allies in the TVA wanted to bring down the puppet master because they wanted to resort free will. However, in this episode revealed, He Who Remains reveals that there was a lot of truth in Miss Minutes’ cartoon in the first episode because if He Who Remains is killed then the timelines will fracture and a new Multiverse war would erupt. It plays on ideas that were explored in Rick and Morty and His Dark Materials.

In the Rick and Morty episode “Auto Erotic Assimilation” Summer questioned Unity’s control of a planet and stated people should have free will. The problem with free will is people can be bad to each other. Loki takes that idea and plays it more seriously and puts it on a grander scale. If He Who Remains is killed then chaos and anarchy would be unleashed. It’s the age question, what’s more important, freedom or security? In the His Dark Materials novels the heroes end goal was to kill The Authority (i.e. God) and save all reality. Loki’s season finale was an inversion of that because He Who Remains claims that if he’s killed then reality could be destroyed.

Majors was captivating in his role. He oozed charisma and was able to make a lot of exposition interesting. He Who Remains’ backstory and his reasoning was fascinating. He Who Remains revealed that he and many over versions of himself discovered the Multiverse and tried to work together but evil variant started the war. He created the TVA as a way to protect reality from himself. However, he was an unreliable character because he had his own agenda and was willing to lie and distort the truth to achieve this. Marvel clearly has big plans because Majors is set to appear as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

The ending of “For All Time. Always.” will be an important part of the MCU’s future. More timelines were being created and it could play a role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It was a massive development for the franchise.

In theory “For All Time. Always.” shouldn’t have worked because it breaks so many rules. It was a dialogue-heavy episode that dumped a lot of information and introduced a new villain at the end. But the showrunners were able to make it tense and compelling. It helps that this episode pulls from a lot of other media I enjoy.

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Exclusive: Daniel Kibblesmith To Write THE DARKHOLD: BLADE #1

By

Matthew Sardo

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July 15, 2021

Exclusive Reveal: THE DARKHOLD: BLADE #1 From Marvel Comics

In September, Marvel Comics will launch DARKHOLD, written by Steve Orlando with artist Cian Tormey:

For hundreds of years, scholars and heroes alike have searched for the Darkhold—a.k.a. the Book of the Damned, written by the elder god Chthon. Now Doctor Doom, one of the greatest sorcerers in the Multiverse has found it, and Chthon has found him. To save them all, the Scarlet Witch recruits a group of the world’s greatest heroes: Iron Man, Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Black Bolt, Blade, and Spider-Man. But in order to enter Chthon’s dimension and fight him, the heroes must read from the legendary Darkhold, which drives them utterly insane. Together, they’ll have to confront their inner darkness to overcome the most powerful mystical threats the Marvel Universe has ever faced. Cover art by GREG SMALLWOOD

Today, Marvel announced Daniel Kibblesmith will write THE DARKHOLD: BLADE #1.

“Anyone who knows me (or follows me online) probably knows I’ve been writing this comic since the theater lights came back up in August of 1998. There isn’t a single character more important to me as a Marvel fan and now creator, and it’s a dream come true to put him through his own worst nightmare, said Kibblesmith via Marvel. Blade has been slashing his way down a dark path virtually since the day he was born — with his inner demons always barely held in check. When the Darkhold unleashes the greatest horrors the Marvel Universe has ever seen, we get to push Blade farther into the darkness than he’s ever gone before and learn what makes a hero in a world that’s already lost.”

Check out Juan Ferreyra’s cover art below.

About THE DARKHOLD: BLADE #1:
THE KING OF DEATH! Are you fanged, or are you food? The world is divided into humans and vampires – and Blade, the one who walks between them both…and kills with equal impunity. After reading from the cursed Darkhold, Blade and a cadre of other heroes were meant to enter Chthon’s dimension and stop the ancient god from destroying the Multiverse. But reading the book has changed all their lives and histories…and for Blade, the consequences are far-reaching. Vampires rule the world, and he rules over them all. But there are some heroes left—and Blade is not as omniscient as he thinks.

What’s your excitement level for Marvel’s DARKHOLD event?

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AfterShock Comics Exclusive Preview: GIRLS OF DIMENSION 13 #4

By

Anthony Composto - EIC

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July 15, 2021

girls of dimension 13 aftershock comics exclusive preview

GIRLS OF DIMENSION 13 #4 hits your local comic book store July 28th, but thanks to AfterShock Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an exclusive four-page preview for you.

About the issue:
Alliances are made amongst battles of survival as Abby and Cece navigate different dimensions on their way to find their friends and confront the evil Abraxis. All this as Abby has a poignant moment with a lost loved one!

GIRLS OF DIMENSION 13 #4 is by writer Graham Nolan and artist Bret Blevins, with colors by Gregory Wright, and letters by Carlos M. Mangual. The cover is by Blevins and Wright.

Check out the GIRLS OF DIMENSION 13 #4 preview below:

Are you reading GIRLS OF DIMENSION 13? Sound off in the comments!

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Review: Placing Bets On A Frozen Smuggler In STAR WARS: WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS #2

By

Justin Munday

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Writer Charles Soule and artist Luke Ross return with another chapter from the Galaxy Far, Far Away in Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #2. Along with colorist Neeraj Menon and letterer Travis Lanham, this is an entertaining but very busy comic. With a script full of engaging character moments but too many characters and solid but bland visuals, this is a mostly compelling read that makes a few missteps.

“Notorious bounty hunter BOBA FETT has tracked his missing prize — heroic smuggler HAN SOLO, frozen in carbonite — to the remote, frozen world of JEKARA. But representatives from many of the galaxy’s most powerful factions have gathered, and they all want the same thing — Solo. Things go from bad to worse, as Boba Fett realizes that he himself has become almost as valuable to the galaxy’s hunters as Han Solo, and he must turn to the least trustworthy person in the galaxy for help…DOCTOR APHRA…”

Writing & Plot

Charles Soule (Star Wars: Darth Vader; Daredevil) has consistently written great Star Wars comics for quite some time now. So when I say that War of the Bounty Hunters #2 is a solidly entertaining issue it should come as no surprise. This chapter puts us directly in a party hosted by Qi’ra to sell off the recently frozen Han Solo. While this is happening, Boba Fett is still trying to reclaim that same prize, after Qi’ra’s Crimson Dawn organization stole it from him. Soule packs in a ton of fantastic dialogues from numerous characters here. All of the conversations are interesting and the dialogue writing is naturalistic and feels right coming from the characters that are speaking.

My personal favorite moment is, of course, the appearance of Doctor Aphra. Soule writes our favorite thieving archeologist/walking disaster spectacularly well, taking notes from Gillen’s original run. This issue is focused much less on action and more on setting up the players for the rest of the story. There’s only one fight with Boba, and while exciting and important in Star Wars lore, it ends pretty quickly. While this is a solidly written issue with a lot to offer, some problems crop up in the latter half. Soule starts to overstuff the script with character appearances in the final pages of this chapter. It’s clear he’s just setting up the next issue, but it gets distracting and a little bit ridiculous here.

Star Wars on the whole has had a problem with stuffing classic characters into stories to artificially increase the entertainment value. I know that isn’t what Soule is trying to do here, but it is still a noticeable detractor. Still, this is a wholly entertaining comic overall, with an engaging script that loses its edge near the end.

Art Direction

Luke Ross returns to provide his simplistic yet effective for Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #2. His solid penciling pulls us into this party of underworld cutthroats with effective character animations and architecture. Ross only really provides detail where it counts, saving his best work for the close-up shots of characters’ facial expressions. Choreography and action sequences are full of momentum, and the panel direction is intelligently put together. Ross mixes effective close-ups with wide-shots that both mimic the Star Wars cinematic style and keep the direction purely comic book-oriented. Unfortunately, there’s a lack of dimension visually that leaves the art feeling a little bland. There isn’t much by way of shadow or inking that gives the environments and characters any depth. This could likely be due to the way the colors are laid into the images.

Ariana Maher’s coloring is solid, don’t get me wrong. She utilizes a vivid and varying palette to bring the universe and characters of Star Wars to life. However, there isn’t much shade variation within the lines. This makes the panels look oddly uneventful, especially compared to the work in many of the other Star Wars comics from recent years. The lettering from Travis Lanham is, much like the rest of this comic, very solid but a bit bland. He utilizes a clean, modern font and some decent sound effect letters, but there’s nothing here that eally stands out. Visually, this is a good but unremarkable comic in the Star Wars catalog, which is full of outstanding looking chapters.

Verdict

Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #2 is a decent comic brought down by some small issues. Charles Soule’s script is full of great dialogues and solid pacing. However, this is cheapened by a flood of sudden appearances from classic characters near the end. The art from Luke Ross and Ariana Maher is competent, but lacks dimension and leaves the experience feeling underwhelming. If you’re on board so far, then be sure to grab this issue when it hits shelves on 7/14!

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Review: BLACK HAMMER: VISIONS #6 – Lovecraft Horror vs The Everyman

By

Zac Owens

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The Black Hammer: Visions miniseries from Dark Horse Comics has been a delight so far. And Black Hammer: Visions #6, from writer Cullen Bunn, artists Malachi Ward and Matthew Sheean, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Nate Piekos, is no exception. This creative team brings us back to the brilliant background character of Cthu-Lou. And in a simple one-shot, they make us thoroughly fall in love with the character.

Writing

Bunn gets Cthu-Lou’s voice just right. Cthu-Lou, or Lou as he prefers to go by, is a plumber who had a run-in with a Lovecraftian god. The monstrous god bestowed great powers upon Lou, turning Lou into its herald. With a new tentacle beard, and six eyes, one would expect Lou would have no choice but to take to the job set before him. Instead, he sits on the couch and watches TV, hoping someone will finally hire him to do some plumbing again.

Bunn captures this dichotomy brilliantly. From the get-go, we see Lou watching TV as reporters describe mysterious celestial phenomena. We’re led to believe these things have something to do with the Lovecraftian god in the sewers. But Lou turns the channel over to sports. He doesn’t care. He wants nothing to do with all of that. And as Lou runs into more of the god’s minions, even their speech patterns couldn’t be more different. “Look around you, Cthu-Lou. See what your defiance has wrought,” is the kind of melodramatic speech we hear from these Lovecraftian horrors. “I don’t suckle at no god’s teat,” or “Ferfucksake,” is the kind of response that’s typical from Lou. He’s not polished or proper. He just wants to get on with his life.

Art

Ward and Sheean create an interesting mix of paranormal and natural art. Through the smallest details, they can turn a seemingly normal location into something spooky. When Lou blows cigarette smoke into the faces of some teens, it lingers in the air like a thick fog. And when we see the Lovecraftian god talking with rats in the sewers, Ward and Sheean make a point of giving us no frame of reference for how big they all are. So when a rat crawls through Lou’s window and turns out to be the same size as him, it’s a terrifying shock.

Coloring

Stewart’s color palette for this issue is relatively dim. When we see Lou in his home, the TV is the only thing lighting the scene. When he’s at the bar, the lights are low. It’s only in the sewer, of all places, that the colors get bright. At least for a bit. As Lou and a bunch of other random people walk through the sewers, the coloring is darker than ever. Every character looks as though they’re holding a flashlight under their chin. It’s spooky. But when Lou actually talks to the elder god, we see neon blues, yellows and greens. Maybe what Stewart is telling us is that, despite its drawbacks, this god is offering Lou a life of significance and color. And even in the face of that, Lou is turning it down for the life he knows and loves. Even if it might seem a little dim in comparison.

Lettering

There’s so much to love about Piekos’ sound effects in this issue. Sometimes the lettering is small and almost hard to notice, like a little “Hmf” from Lou as he sits on the couch. Other times the letters actually become part of the panel. A “LOOUUUU…” is what beckons Lou into the sewers, rising from one panel into the other. But while the sound effects of this issue are fantastic and dynamic, the lettering for the dialogue feels a little static. Every line of dialogue is delivered in a single chunk. There are no joins or balloon connectors to space out each beat, and sometimes beats feel like they get lost in a paragraph. Of course, if it’s in the script that way, there’s often not much a letterer can do. And Piekos makes the most of every other aspect of his job in this issue!

Dark Horse’s Black Hammer: Visions #6 is spooky and fun. This creative team really shows us what makes Cthu-Lou so loveable. Pick up Black Hammer: Visions #6, out today at a comic shop near you!

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