The Incredible Hulk [2023] #17 - Marvel Comics

THE INCREDIBLE HULK No. 17, November 2024

Described by its New York City-based publisher as beginning ‘the crescendo to Legacy Issue Nine Hundred of Incredible Hulk’, Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s opening for “City Of The Idols” certainly should have utterly enthralled any Hulk-heads with a genuinely touching tale of two girls being lured to a truly unpleasant fate in Las Vegas. But whilst the destiny of the wannabe actresses easily holds the attention, especially once its revealed that they’ve inadvertently walked straight into the heart of an underground vampire coven, the rest of this twenty-page periodical’s plot is arguably far less surprising; “I knew you nearly four thousand years ago. We died together. Our bones were entombed together.”

For starters the titular character simply just walks straight through “the Entertainment Capital of the World” without so much as batting an eye, right up to the entranceway of Lycana’s subterranean temple, and is then rather disappointingly just invited down to meet Eldest. Such matter-of-fact penmanship undoubtedly allows the central antagonists to lock horns as quickly as possible. However, it must surely have made some readers feel the American author had missed a trick not to show the founding Avenger facing off against some of the foul fanged-fiends which he had just established litter the dark streets of the gambling metropolis.

Likewise, the actual battle between Bruce Banner’s alter-ego and his regrettably ordinary-looking female foe may strike some as being a rather ‘fight-by-numbers’ affair, seeing as it’s already been established in past instalments, and then reinforced in this actual publication, that the Hulk cannot physically hurt his opponent. This knowledge, driven home by Eldest’s disagreeable haughtiness, always points to the anti-hero’s human side caving in to her demands to sacrifice the Green Goliath so as to save poor Charlie Tidwell, and resultantly this book's narrative delivers no shock whatsoever when the gamma scientist does just that.

What does strike home though are Nic Klein’s layouts, which try to hold the audience’s eyes with a staggering buffet of physical horror, emotional despair, and bold-faced brutality. Indeed, in many ways it’s a pity the illustrator didn’t stick to showing Eldest in her more Lovecraftian-manifestation, rather than return to pencilling her as a simply smartly-dressed individual whose hands just happen to transform into pointy tentacles similar to James Cameron’s mimetic polyalloy T-1000 shapeshifting assassin.

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Artist: Nic Klein, and Color Artists: Matthew Wilson with Nic Klein

Conan The Barbarian #16 - Titan Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN No. 16, November 2024

Considering that the entirety of this twenty-two page periodical explores the titular character’s shocking belief that Crom doesn’t actually exist, it’s difficult to imagine all that many readers of “The Hidden World” will wholly agree with the British-based publishing house's claim that this book forms part of a “triumphant new era of Conan”. In fact, Jim Zub’s tampering with one of the fundamental foundations of Robert E. Howard’s most famous literary creations could well be seen as fairly sacrilegious by some dog brothers and sword sisters; especially when the Canadian author suddenly seems to double-down on his anti-deity narrative by proposing that the barbarian’s father also had his doubts as to Cimmeria’s indifferent god.

Furthermore, the Animex Honorary Award-winner wraps the young adventurer’s doubts regarding his people’s religion around an arguably unconvincing plot which depicts Osmin seeking revenge for not being chosen to accompany Wulfhere’s doomed band of warriors. Admittedly, the bearded bully is evidently full of drink and misgivings as to just why his fellow fighters have ‘adopted’ the black-haired Outlander so willingly into their midst. But his brutal, out-of-the-blue attack upon an unarmed, and frankly distracted Conan, still smacks of the writer needing some contrived spark with which to imbue his script with some much needed action. Indeed, up until the point where the drunkard suddenly emerges from the trees vehemently questioning the barbarian's manhood, the majority of this tome’s audience probably thought the disagreeably arrogant Aesir had been killed as part of the lost patrol.

To make matters worse though, once the Cimmerian has defeated his foe, courtesy of Doug Braithwaite pencilling him splitting the fool’s head with a small hand-axe, the camp’s reaction is to immediately blame the "savage" for the death and cast him back out into the winter wilderness. Considering just how hard the heavily-muscled protagonist has fought for these people of Asgard in the past, and that it was Osmin who first cowardly clubbed Conan from behind to (re)start their non-canonical grudge-fight, such an illogical reaction appears to have been manufactured simply so the future King of Aquilonia can once again be sketched wandering the snow-covered countryside on his lonesome; “I gave up my hunt, doused your enemy’s fire, fought in your damned blood feud… of that’s not enough, step forth and try to take more.”

The regular cover art of "CONAN THE BARBARIAN" #16 by Colleen Doran

Creepshow [2024] #1 - Image Comics

CREEPSHOW No. 1, September 2024

Pushed by “Skybound Entertainment” as being “creepier than ever”, this opening instalment to the third volume of “Creepshow” probably struck many a reader as being a rather hit and miss affair with its supposedly spine-chilling contents – most notably due to the arguable lack of logic or dread occurring within its first story by Chip Zdarsky. In fact, “Let ‘Er Trip” is debatably just plain odd as a desperate mother tracks down her errant eighteen-year old daughter to a local cult, and then inexplicably guts all of the sect’s knife-wielding zealots using the repressed power of her mind; “I shoulda lowered my dosage -- GK!!” 

True, the Canadian writer’s script certainly allows artist Kagan McLeod to pencil plenty of decapitations, eviscerations and innards-splattering sequences towards the tale’s cataclysmic conclusion. But just why taking a mouthful of mushrooms should suddenly imbue the housewife with such phenomenal powers is never properly explained, even by the Creep, and certainly doesn’t seem to live up to the publisher’s “guarantee” of this Eisner Award nominated horror anthology comic book actually scaring its audience to death.

Much more successful however, is James Stokoe’s fish-filled, foul-smelling “Scrimshaw”, which atmospherically evokes all the suspense a bibliophile may well expect from an isolated island whose sole source of income lies in trawling its waters. Somewhat reminiscent of actor Christian Slater’s character talking one-on-one with Louis de Pointe du Lac at the start of the 1994 movie “Interview With A Vampire”, this ten-page plot does a great job of quickly building up an almost mesmeric ambiance, as well as swiftly misdirecting the attention away from the grizzled storyteller with an enthralling old fisherman’s myth so as to provide a genuinely nerve-shuddering shock at its end.

Alongside such intriguing penmanship, the author/illustrator also provides his yarn with some incredibly detailed panels, which really help paint a vividly vibrant picture of an isolated world where hand-carved human body parts occasionally wash up upon the coastline, and are treasured by an increasingly wide-eyed murderer who enthusiastically searches the shore for just such grisly treasure. Furthermore, the concept of a mysterious Scrimshander, shrouded in the ocean’s detritus, is particularly well-depicted, with the creature's disconcerting demeanour easily captivating the eye whenever it makes an appearance.

Writers: Chip Zdarsky and James Stokoe, and Artists: Kagan McLeod and James Stokoe