Dolphin Squad II: A Death In The Pod [Part Three] - Deadstar Publishing

DOLPHIN SQUAD II: A DEATH IN THE POD, May 2018

Bringing “this seventy two page full colour, all action graphic novel” to a satisfying conclusion with the discovery and resultant rescue of the Albino Avenger, Fabian, Danny J. Weston’s narrative for the final third of this publication definitely relies far more upon gallows humour to provide its gags than it has before. For whilst Vinny continues to deliver some of the corniest one-liners ever uttered by an aquatic mammal within the confines of a comic, such as when the “giant giant panda” Ping Po rescues Laser-Eye from a polar bear’s deadly bear-hug, and the “world’s angriest dolphin” delivers the cringe-worthy wisecrack “looks like we bear-ly made it in time”, it is actually the gruesomely lethal fate of the script’s “malicious mastermind” which arguably draws the biggest guffaws.

Helfert’s unwise decision to saw through his own handcuffed hand with a well-hidden hacksaw, rather than use the toothed-tool to cut through the wooden table leg he was manacled to, is rather reminiscent of Doctor Lawrence Gordon’s grisly resolution to Jigsaw’s conundrum in the 2004 horror film “Saw”. Yet it immediately draws more than a smile from the reader due to the ‘mean-hearted’ haranguing Dolphin Squad give the now mutilated German-accented super-villain for not just simply ‘sawing through the desk’; “Vot? Ze desk..? I… Uh -- Curse you dolphin!”

Interestingly, the author also utilises this debatably grotesque scene and the trail of blood droplets it leaves behind as a plot device to provide a reason as to how the titular threesome can track down the bespectacled scientist to his “secret emergency exit to lobby” and subsequently witness his comically dark demise in the jaws of four no longer mind-controlled minions. The look on the straight-faced polar bear as he closes the door in order to stop the audience from seeing what the quartet of snow-coloured predators are about to do to their former master is wonderfully pencilled by Weston, and one can only imagine the evil professor’s final moments as the jumper-wearing carnivores ignore his plea not to “eat me” and start “licking” their meal…

Sadly, slightly less successful is “the S.E.A.W.O.R.L.D. short” entitled “The Poseidon Misadventure” written by Mark Adams and Mark Warner. Clearly designed to emulate an earlier era in Laser-Eye’s career, before Hogan became the Whalereverine and was actually the porpoise’s “big guy on the team”, this tale certainly provides an entertaining insight into some of the super-team’s former members like Campion the sea urchin, and Anna-Leigh the sea cow. But having spent so long perusing the computer-enhanced digitised drawings of “Dolphin Squad II: A Death In The Pod”, the stylised, characterfully pencilled panels of Dave Clifford debatably prove a jarring distraction from the storytelling.

‘First published on the "Dawn of Comics" website.'

Writer and Artist: Danny J. Weston