Hook Jaw #5 - Titan Comics

HOOK JAW No. 5, May 2017

Much of this comic’s audience must surely have agreed with lead protagonist Maggie Reyes when the character rants at her Somalian kidnappers that “you’re pathetic!” and “You’re just awful.” However, rather than directing their bile towards Abdukadir and his murderously brutal brigand crew, it’s probably far more likely that this “Titan Comics” title’s readership were targeting their disgust at Si Spurrier’s woefully written narrative and it's appalling propensity to blatantly steal scenes from movies such as "Tremors", "Aliens" and "Jurassic Park III"; "The dummy phone... It's Jasper! It's the bug in the phone! B-But he was... I-It's... It's ins--"  

Indeed, apart from the enormous Carcharodon carcharias finally putting an end to all but the female oceanologist and thus ending the entire cast’s infuriating self-righteous whining, there genuinely seems to be little within the script for Issue Five of “Hook Jaw” that either appears original or makes any sense whatsoever. Certainly, the Englishman’s bizarre reimaging of the gigantic shark as a ‘rational-thinking’ monster of the deep, who actually halts an attack when a diver threatens to harpoon one of “her damn buddies”, is hard to mentally process. For as Mags herself remarks “That’s… that’s stupid.”

Similarly, it is genuinely difficult to fathom out just why, having killed his captors and stealthily escaped his imprisonment, Navy SEAL Klay alarmingly announces his plans to “slaughter every last one of the pirate sonsabitches” to their very faces when armed with a simple blood-stained fishing knife, or later, Ayub allows himself to die of starvation whilst holding on to the gantry of an abandoned oil rig? Admittedly, the elderly bandit was never going to try and swim for it once Hook Jaw bit out the bottom of his boat and started circling his location. But surely it would have made far more sense for the man to limp his way to a far better “dry spot” within so large a complex… and perhaps search for a source of water or food? 

Fortunately, what this twenty-two page finale does contain is plenty of grisly drawings of the “legendary” fish harassing all those foolish enough to enter the water. In fact, this publication’s one saving grace is Conor Boyle’s graphic depiction of “Flipper” circling his numerous prey as they attempt to reclaim a lost container crate from the ocean’s floor and subsequently encouraging her babies to tear Klay, Abdukadir and CIA operative Dow into eyeball-sized pieces before swimming off “into the cold.”

Writer: Si Spurrier, Art: Conor Boyle, and Colors: Giulia Brusco

Hook Jaw #4 - Titan Comics

HOOK JAW No. 4, April 2017

Featuring a script far more in keeping with the titular character’s Seventies “Action Comics” exploits than its disappointing 21st Century re-imagining, Si Spurrier’s script for Issue Four of “Hook Jaw” genuinely seems to play out like something from a Peter Benchley novel, with its deeply disturbing death of an eco-activist at the comic’s start and subsequent sharp-toothed surfacings. Indeed, apart from the Englishman’s disconcerting insistence on having the giant shark supposedly rationalise and consider which person to eat when faced with a choice, rather than simply be a predatory killing machine, this twenty-two page periodical proves an increasingly enthralling read.

For starters, the threat of the huge Carcharodon carcharias clamping its jaws around some hapless victim at any moment is prevalent throughout this publication’s narrative, and resultantly the bizarre, thoroughly tedious machinations of CIA operative Dow, thankfully take a noticeable back seat for large portions of the book. True, the equally as annoying “disguised Navy SEAL Clint” and obtuse scientist Jasper still prove wearisomely displeasing. But at least the overweight “racist” dolphin-lover finally comes to a bloody end, when he’s purposely knocked overboard in to the Somalian waters by his former “kitchen boy” and immediately consumed by the “legendary great white” shark; “Where is it where is it £$%& God No No No.”

Just as suspenseful is the Eagle Award-nominee’s writing for the scene where Mag's colleague Laurie is hung out over the side of a pirate vessel in anticipation that the foul-mouthed marine biologist will be torn in half. Just why a sliver of Uncle Ayub’s dismembered frozen finger can somehow draw the giant shark to attack is never properly explored, it just “£$%&in’ works!” and provides “rising star Conor Boyle” with a splash page opportunity straight out of the pencilling portfolio of original series artist Ramon Sola… 

Sadly, despite this definite nod “at its primogenitor”, Spurrier’s plot still seemingly struggles to decide whether it’s actually a monster story at heart, or some sort of secret government thriller where the Americans have been building “a machine to fix the world.” This indecision becomes especially befuddling towards the book’s conclusion when the loathsome Dow suddenly intimates she’s actually an Earth-saving environmentalist, and explains that the stolen technology the Somalian pirates have lost is in fact a “climate change, global weirding” device that “can damn sure stitch” the atmospheric wound causing the world’s temperature to warm-up..?

The regular cover art of "HOOK JAW" No. 4 by Conor Boyle

Hook Jaw #3 - Titan Comics

HOOK JAW No. 3, March 2017

As re-imaginings go, Si Spurrier’s atrocious script for Issue Three of “Hook Jaw” must have horrified its ashen audience in much the same vein as the original “Action Comics” moral-corrupting creation terrified its young readership’s parents. For whilst this twenty-two page periodical does contain a passing resemblance to its Seventies forefather, by depicting a team of US special operatives being savaged whilst investigating a wrecked container ship deep underwater, the rest of its narrative is woefully dissimilar to Pat Mills’ vision of a single-minded predatory great white shark, and disconcertingly, seems far more interested in the blatant sexual harassment of scientist Mag.

Indeed, for vast swathes of the former BBC art director’s storyline, the dialogue is worryingly focused solely upon the dislikeable Captain Klay’s maddening attempts to have some “basic action” with the “Hot latte”, and even goes so far as to require him to be beaten off by the “feisty” woman with a jawbone when his supposed amorous intentions get the better of him on a deserted beach; “I figure you’re definitely the Bond girl in this here drama… Can we get back to you succumbing to my seduction, and --” Such a disagreeable sub-plot is hardly the sort of subject one would expect from a comic book supposedly based upon “the near-legendary Hook Jaw”, even if its cover does carry the tiniest of “suggested for mature readers” warnings…

Fortunately, when the British author does finally centre his writing upon the titular character, the excitement and fear of the divers is perfectly palpable the moment the oversized shark suddenly appears to knock away the heroine’s “damn torch” and plunge the already unnerved team into total darkness. In fact, it’s easy to imagine the terrified screams of Perry as Mag ignites a magnesium flare and the already partially-mutilated frogman realises his arm and foot are trapped “in its mouth…”   

Infinitely less successful than this publication’s momentary ‘flash of frightening fun’ are Conor Boyle’s increasingly erratic breakdowns. The London-located illustrator can clearly draw a fantastically menacing Carcharodon Carcharias when he has to, but the rest of his pencilling, especially that of the repeatedly misshapen Mag, Jasper and Klay, arguably leaves an awful lot to be desired.

The variant cover art of "HOOK JAW" No. 3 by Tom Mandrake

Hook Jaw #2 - Titan Comics

HOOK JAW No. 2, February 2017

Whilst Simon Spurrier’s pre-publication belief that his script for “Hook Jaw 2017 should nod at its primogenitor with great affection and respect, but needn’t – in fact shouldn’t even try to – slavishly recreate or reboot” it's predecessor was a laudable attitude to have, it does arguably mean that anyone pining to once again experience “the violent British environmentalist shark horror comic of the 1970s” doubtless didn’t find much to enjoy within Issue Two of “Hook Jaw”. It's certainly hard to reconcile this twenty-two page periodical’s narrative, which predominantly focuses upon “a rag-tag group of marine scientists” being verbally interrogated by Valerie Dow of the CIA, with the “pulse-poundingly gory” weekly British comic strip that was published by “IPC Magazines”.

Indeed, despite the book opening with a nonchalant fisherman being literally ‘speared’ by the titular character and surreptitiously dragged into the ocean as a tasty treat, the ordinarily prominent formidably-sized Carcharodon carcharias isn’t actually even properly seen until the book’s cliff-hanger conclusion, and then the brute is simply depicted spitting out the disintegrating corpse of a hapless dolphin; “Oh no. S-swim faster wondrous ocean-child! Swim faster! £$%&…” Such fleeting glimpses of the monster’s savagery are hardly the sort of repellent, excessively grisly action that the “man-eating great white shark” is famous for, and surely unworthy of the “suggested for mature readers” warning on the comic’s cover illustration..?    

Sadly however, this bewildering re-imaging of the deadly “boneless tube with teeth” is made all the worse as a result of the British novelist not only having Maggie Reyes dwell on the fact that Hook Jaw is supposedly a ‘mythic Nessie’ which “they made comics about… in the Seventies". But that the “eating machine” to whom “we're nothing more than meat to be ripped apart and eaten” is actually a wrong-thinking cognitive female shark, as opposed to a straightforward male “force of nature”, that knows it shouldn’t consume the “wrong flesh” of humans yet purposely ignores his natural prey in order to consume the “dry flesh hot and furious and foul but ohhh…”

Disconcertingly, Conor Boyle’s breakdowns do little to soften Spurrier’s perplexing plot, and potentially only add to the confusion with his persistently ambiguous panels. In fact, on several occasions, such as when the aforementioned fisherman is impossibly impaled upon the gaff hook protruding from the shark’s jaw, or Captain Klay Clay miraculously lassos a dolphin from high upon his ship’s deck, it’s remarkably unclear as to just how events have physically occurred.

The regular cover art of "HOOK JAW" No. 2 by Conor Boyle

Hook Jaw #1 - Titan Comics

HOOK JAW No. 1, January 2017

Based upon the giant shark who first appeared inside the “controversial weekly British anthology comic” “Action” and apparently “had no problem tearing women and child apart… in graphic detail”, Simon Spurrier’s script for Issue One of “Hook Jaw” probably came as something of a disappointment to its 4,249 readers, with its particularly bizarre tale of a scientific research vessel being raided by Somali pirates and subsequently rescued by a team of United States Navy S.E.A.L.S. In fact, it is arguably rather hard to see many similarities at all between this twenty-two page periodical and the ‘environmentally edgy' “Jaws” cash-in which eventually lead to the titular character’s magazine being ‘pulped’ by the “International Publishing Corporation” in October 1976.

True, the British novelist’s narrative does consistently present the menace of a female Great White shark suddenly attacking one of the ship’s crewmembers, courtesy of “the world-famous virgin brides” Agatha, Carmel and Big Bertha. But such a sense of pervading peril, occasionally heightened by a dorsal fin or two breaking the water’s surface, is hardly the sort of vivid mutilation anticipated by a franchise infamous for its stories being literally “drenched in blood and gore”.

Mercifully though, Hook Jaw is not entirely absent from this mini-series’ opening instalment, and when Captain Klay’s United States Special Operations team does encounter the formidably-sized Carcharodon carcharias, the sense of horror is still incredibly palpable even though the gaff-hooked monster tears his prey to pieces ‘off-screen’. Indeed, in many ways the fate of the two scuba-divers is made all the more unpleasant as a result of their piteous pleas resonating across their underwater equipment’s audio feed; “Ohhh no more please no more please no more pluh-hee-heeese. Nnnno Mommy pleeheeeeease go away get away not like this I don’t wanna daa aaa aaa…”

Sadly, Conor Boyle’s breakdowns for the majority of this comic are not a patch on the original series’ artwork by Seventies sketching ‘superstar’, and Hook Jaw’s co-creator, Ramon Sola, with the illustrator’s somewhat quirky, stiff-looking figures proving a particular disappointment. Having said that however, the freelancer’s incredible ability to draw anatomically correct sharks and imbue their gliding forms full of spine-tingling danger, makes it abundantly clear just why “Titan Comics” hired him to contribute to this publication.

The regular cover art of "HOOK JAW" No. 1 by Conor Boyle & Luis Gurrero