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| G.I. ZOMBIE No. 4, January 2015 |
An unexpected ‘reveal’ as to Carmen King’s past
as a sole-surviving military helicopter lieutenant at the start of this
comic book is simply not enough to save a rather lack-lustre, somewhat confusing
and ultimately disappointing publication. There is a genuine tiredness to both
the writing and the artwork for Issue Four of “G.I. Zombie”; almost as if the
creative team behind ‘the man who is neither dead or alive’ knew the title was
about to be cancelled by “DC Comics” and aware of their estimated sales figure
of approximately just 7,500 copies, simply lacked the energy or willpower to
produce a half-decent issue.
Whatever the reason “Exit Strategy” contains little passion, ambition or direction and at best appears to be a collection of short stories
based upon a handful of characters who are either responsible for or fighting against
the zombie outbreak at Sutterville, Tennessee. Quite rightly the title’s lead, Jared
Kabe, still gets the lion’s share of attention but co-writers Jimmy Palmiotti
and Justin Gray fail to satisfactorily resolve the previous edition’s cliff-hanger
of the Sergeant being overrun by a swarm of zombies and disappearing beneath
their tearing hands and gnashing teeth. Time has clearly moved on, albeit
briefly, since the undead soldier fell beneath his foe through the sheer weight
of their numbers. For instead of being ‘flattened’ upon the ground in danger of
being crushed by the ravenous hungry horde assailing him, the story picks up
with Kabe once again on his feet, simply punching his way to freedom.
Unfortunately
with his safety is firmly established atop a local garage, G.I. Zombie’s
co-creators suddenly seem lost as to what to do next. We’re introduced to some
new characters testing out a bullet-proof full-body suit “at an undisclosed
location”, then discover “the infected can drive” as a fuel lorry is driven
straight through the military’s contamination recovery centre, and finally
shown the Rinaldi Spa, a Roman-inspired hotel complete with togas, where the
brain behind the ‘zombie bomb’ resides and dines his guest whilst literally surrounded by numerous missiles.
As King states “You’ve got to be kidding!”
Equally as poor is Scot Hampton’s pencilling,
which somehow manages to resemble little more than the school-book sketchings
of a young child. Many of the figures are indistinct over-coloured figures, whilst
others are misshapen distorted parodies of human anatomy… and these aren’t depictions
of zombies either.
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| Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, and Artist and Colorist: Scott Hampton |
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