G.I. Zombie #4 [The New 52] - DC Comics

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.

Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, and Artist and Colorist: Scott Hampton

G.I. Zombie #3 [The New 52] - DC Comics

G.I. ZOMBIE No. 3, December 2014

There have been a number of ‘Zombie’ comic book titles published which address the cause of their respective outbreak or pandemic. Perhaps most well-known and arguably the most outlandish being that of “Marvel Zombies”, where an infected superhero from another dimension infects The Avengers initiating a viral zombie epidemic which spreads throughout the entire Marvel Universe. Others have actually purposely steered away from any explanations, such as “The Walking Dead” by “Image Comics”, preferring instead to simply hint or tease at the possibilities.

The storyline of “G.I. Zombie” is most assuredly in the first camp, as the start to “Small Town Welcome” sees Sergeant Jared Kabe literally clinging on to the contagion’s cause as the biological warhead strikes the Sutterville Animal Hospital in Tennessee. Indeed “DC Comics” have actually published a lengthy build-up to the terrorist attack ‘which started it all’ by exploring the American extremists’ motivations in the previous two issues. With this edition however, whilst co-writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti continue to provide more insights behind the fanatics who launched the chemical missile, most of its twenty pages are concerned with the infection’s initial impact upon the local population. And bearing in mind it’s a contagion able to turn “… anything organic into a mindless zombie” you know things are not going to go well for the authorities, despite their prompt presence and intervention. 

However this outbreak is rather novel in that the zombies first encountered by Kabe, and as a result the earliest living creatures to actually be infected, are in fact animals not humans… and quite the menagerie they form as the secret agent faces an attack by an undead python, dog, cat and frog. Slowly though the human victims start to mount up as the animal-loving members of the emergency services fall foul of their rabid pets, and so it isn’t long before G.I. Zombie finds himself confronting a veritable horde of hungry flesh-eating fiends. 

Disappointingly much of this action is poorly illustrated by Scott Hampton, whose unique style and colouring, seems to worsen as the story progresses. His pages depicting Kabe fighting off a ‘spooked’ snake and then the fate of the virus’ first human casualty are competent enough. But as the pace intensifies, and the number of the Undead needed to fill a scene increased, the American comic book artist’s pencilling starts to badly suffer as he leaves out any sort of detail to his figures and simply block colours them in. As a result the issue’s epic conclusion, which sees the Sergeant buried under an army of clawing zombies, is simply illustrated by a page load of featureless, somewhat indistinguishable, coloured blobs pressing upon a single partially submerged monotone arm.

The variant cover art of "G.I. ZOMBIE" No. 3 by Dave Johnson

G.I. Zombie #2 [The New 52] - DC Comics

G.I. ZOMBIE No. 2, October 2014

Anyone buying Issue 2 of “G.I.Zombie” based solely upon the imagery of the comic book’s Darwyn Cooke cover illustration is going to be rather disappointed by its contents. For despite there being plenty of action within its twenty pages, there is nothing which bears even a passing resemblance to front page’s depiction of an Undead paratrooper landing amidst a hail of enemy fire and being shot to pieces as a result. Slightly bizarrely though, the variant cover by Howard Porter, is taken straight from the storyline’s climax, and actually easily upstages the uninspiring sketchings of the book’s artist and colorist Scott Hampton. 

Fortunately for this title however, the main selling point would not seem to be the American’s rather dire and lack-lustre painted artwork. It is the plot by co-writers and co-creators Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, as well as the seemingly popular ‘zombie armed with an AK-47’ sales pitch. Certainly the title hero, Sergeant Jared Kabe, gets an awful lot of ‘screen time’ within this comic as he goes from being a stealthy killer and torturer of terrorist sentries at the start through to a literal one-man army gunning down numerous foes in a firefight at the end.

As a result there’s plenty of opportunities for the reader to gauge just what super-powers the walking corpse actually possesses. Clearly Kabe is good with a blade or “pig sticker” as he casually dispatches one gunman with a nonchalant back-handed throw of a knife. He’s also not unskilled with firearms, swapping from silenced handgun to assault rifle without pause… except perhaps to bite out the throat of the odd startled terrorist. Interestingly there is however no sense that G.I. Zombie is impervious to harm. Indeed the ‘good soldier’ has to literally throw himself into a freezer unit to survive a flurry of grenades and later simply manages to remark “That’s no good” in anticipation of being blown up by a grenade launcher.

This vulnerability to excessive physical damage makes Kabe’s vain attempt to prematurely detonate a chemical missile whilst he’s ‘riding it’ a genuine act of bravery and all the more impactive and impressive as a result. So whilst Hampton’s poorly drawn scratchy pencils appear frighteningly amateurish, the actual writing and characterisation within this comic book makes it a reasonably worthwhile read.

The variant cover art of "G.I. ZOMBIE" No. 2 by Howard Porter

G.I. Zombie #1 [The New 52] - DC Comics

G.I. ZOMBIE No. 1, September 2014 

If ever there was a genuine case of hoping a comic book title was going to be ‘third time lucky’ it must surely be “DC Comics” agreeing to print “G.I. Zombie” as an ongoing series. For ‘the soldier hungry for war… and some brains too’ would never have seen the light of day if the American comic book publisher had not first cancelled “The Unknown Soldier” in May 2010 and then it’s re-imagining, ‘The New 52’ title “G.I. Combat” in December 2012. Perhaps even more miraculous however is that the company have also given the reins entirely over to Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray; the back-up feature co-writers on the most recent series during its seven-issue run.

Fortunately there are a fair few differences between the contents of this title and its immediate predecessor. To begin with, despite the fact the comic carries the “Star-Spangled War Stories” logo on its cover, the horror/war story inside focuses solely upon the exploits of Sergeant Jared Kabe and his new partner. There’s none of the rotating cast and jockeying of creative teams which readers experienced when the title’s forerunner tried to depict the exploits of “The War That Time Forgot”, “The Unknown Soldier” and “The Haunted Tank” all within a single edition. G.I. Zombie is also an entirely new character, with a very fresh supporting cast and plenty of questions to be resolved by writers in future issues.

As a result this first issue doesn’t play out like a simple rehash of a past Unknown Soldier story. It is very different in content. Very different indeed and worthy of the Rated T+ warning on the front cover as the title character is literally tortured to death; well as dead as a living animated corpse can get anyway. Lastly this book is not about some super-heroic soldier simply rushing from one battlefield to another, wreaking havoc upon the enemy and implausibly turning the tide of the fight against all the odds. “G.I. Zombie” is all about fighting the enemy within, the subversive homeland terrorist, and the undercover lengths some modern day soldiers and secret agents need to resort to in order to keep their comrades and the larger national population safe.

Sadly the artwork of Scott Hampton is not good. Not good at all, especially when compared to the atmospheric main cover art by Canadian cartoonist Darwyn Cooke. The pale, single-tone colouring, also by Hampton, does not help matters either, as combined they make each drawing appear featureless, bland and (no pun intended) lifeless. There’s a real lack of detail to the penciling, with each figure simply being drawn with a striking black silhouette but no actual detail except for eyes, nose and mouth. Very lacklustre, very bare and disappointingly very unimpressive.

The variant cover art of "G.I. ZOMBIE" No. 1 by Howard Porter

G.I. Zombie: Futures End #1 - DC Comics

G.I. ZOMBIE: FUTURES END No. 1, November 2014

I am not very familiar with “DC Comics” Fifties book title “Star-Spangled War Stories” but do know that it ran for over two-hundred issues until the late Seventies when it was renamed “The Unknown Soldier”. I also own the 2008 twelve-issue limited series “The War That Time Forgot” which was a re-launch of one of its most popular regular features.

None of this information is especially relevant to “G.I. Zombie” however, as Sergeant Jared Kabe is actually a completely new character to the DC Comics Universe. It’s just that this new horror/war series has the iconic “Star-Spangled War Stories” banner bolted atop its title. Indeed I’d be entirely oblivious to the modern-day undead soldier if it was not for the stunningly superb 3-D motion cover to this “G.I. Zombie - Futures End” one-shot comic.

Drawn by Dave Johnson, it depicts Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray’s creation momentarily surrounded by zombies, before punching one in the head so hard the living corpse’s eyeball breaks free. Gross, bloody and gory it is but also so eye-catching (pun) that it convinced me to purchase the edition just as soon as I saw it. Lucky for the publisher too, for if I’d had an inkling as to the quality of the artwork inside the comic I’d have been sorely tempted to give the book a miss… despite the cover illustration on its own probably being worth the ‘price of admission’.

As a stand-alone story, co-writers Gray and Palmiotti certainly plunge the reader into the action right from start. The very first panel has a would-be looter getting attacked by a hungry ghoul, and before many more have passed you have an American aircraft carrier being overrun by zombie paratroopers. Throw in a family’s headlong dash for Gotham City with a horde of hungry undead biting at their heels, and an aeroplane battle which ends up with a fist-fight in the sky and there’s probably not a great deal more that could be contained within the storyline’s twenty-pages.

Unfortunately it is all appallingly drawn by Scott Hampton, whose indistinct minimalist sketchings leave an awful lot to be desired. There is simply no detail on any of his figures, and as a result most of the panels appear to be filled with just the outlines of people and the suggestion of something taking place. It is certainly no wonder that the freelance comic book artist colours his own illustrations, as I’d imagine another professional looking at his ‘chicken-scratchings’ would not know where to begin.

Writers: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, and Artist/Colorist: Scott Hampton