Black Terror #4 - Dynamite Entertainment

BLACK TERROR No. 4, January 2020

Firmly fixated upon the horrors of the Second Indochina War and the savage barbarity of American Sergeant Gary Greeley, Max Bemis’ script for Issue Four of “Black Terror” arguably provided something of a unique take on the conflict’s brutal repercussions for any surviving Vietnam era veteran. Indeed, the twenty-three page periodical’s plot arguably even manages to generate some considerable sympathy for the villainous Bad Groove, by gratuitously depicting just what wartime experiences made the star-shaped glasses-wearing druggie into the one-handed, sabre-carrying hoodlum Bob Benton dramatically beats up; “I won’t be attending prison again, sir.”

For starters, it’s clear that the Armed Forces never gave “Dumps” much of a fighting chance whilst he was in training, thanks solely to the prejudices of Greeley, and his insane delight in repeatedly abusing the soldier verbally. Thick-jawed and heavily-boned, the Sergeant is portrayed as a stereotypical bully in every respect, yet it isn’t until after Groove has been badly maimed in a frightening Viet Cong ambush that a chortling Gary sinks to his darkest depths by simply leaving the badly maimed “outcast” to the enemy so they can “make him hurt” all the more.

This tortuous affair clearly sets up the heavily-moustached Groove upon his life as a highly colourful criminal, and resultantly it is with genuine compassion that, having experienced his foe’s past courtesy of a drug-fuelled flashback, Black Terror tenderly touches the back of the man’s head after the crook has slit his own throat in a last, desperate attempt to evade incarceration. Delightfully, “Dumps” demise doesn’t however bring this publication to so demoralising an end, but instead leads Benton on a quest to confront a now wheelchair-bound Greely in the non-commissioned ranked soldier’s Tampa-based retirement bungalow.

The unexpected consequences of this meeting, especially following Bob’s green-coloured vomit somehow ‘infecting’ the slovenly oldster with Groove’s traumatising memories, provides artist Ruairi Coleman with an opportunity to pencil easily one of the most gruesomely shocking demises this book’s bibliophiles could probably imagine. The Northern Irishman's sketch of a quietly whistling invalid calmly 'wheeling' himself up to the swamp’s edge so as to await the ghastly fate he has apparently decided upon to “make it up to you, Dumps…” is packed full of pathos, and splendidly contrasts with the Florida alligator viciously disembowelling Gary in a disconcerting display of intestines soon afterwards.

The regular cover art of "BLACK TERROR" No. 4 by Rahzzah