Reviews by PedRo Cabezuelo
Marvel’s über-long adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand continues with this fifth miniseries. Aside from the obvious mar- keting reasons, dividing King’s book into six five-issue series seems rather pointless since there’s no way anybody who hasn’t
picked up the previous four cycles is going to understand any of this. Mind you, I don’t really see the point of adapting King’s work at all. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy his writing, but The Stand never really struck me as compelling enough to take full advantage of the graphic novel format. The most noteworthy thing that happens in this issue is the first meeting between Nadine Cross and Harold Lauder. The rest is just talk, talk, talk – giving artist Mike Perkins very little to work with.
I’ve often thought the violent and dis- turbing imagery of Garth Ennis’ Crossed goes a
bit too far. Granted, the series is built around a plague that makes people carry out evil, obscene acts (and leaves a cross- shaped scar on their faces), but some- times Ennis seems to favour shock over substance. This new series by David Lapham continues the gratuitous gore with scenes of graphic bestiality,
buggery, necrophilia and rape, but as a set-up for a rather intriguing story. A group of four survivors come across a fifth, Harold Lorre, who has bro- ken his leg after a confrontation with The Crossed. After much deliberation, the group takes Lorre with them, not realizing that he harbours some dangerous needs of his own. Only time will tell if Lapham can remain engaging enough to over- shadow the more exploitative as- pects.
The original Star T rekseries
had several brushes with horror, so it’s not a huge stretch to picture Captain Kirk and crew stranded on a planet full of inhabitants stricken with a zombie virus. The Tiptons wisely choose to keep the action focused on Kirk, Spock and McCoy, with the rest of the crew in orbit and out of sight. Kudos, too, for the logical explanation of why
the trio doesn’t just set its phasers on wide dispersal and disinte- grate all of the attack- ers. In true Trek fashion, the crew is desperate to find a cure and save the lives of the infected. Their final solution – to par- aphrase Spock – is, shall we say, unique. And while more interplay between Spock and McCoy would’ve been nice, the characters nev- ertheless ring true. Set phasers to fun!
Echoesis the story of Brian Cohn, a schiz- ophrenic who’s just discovered that his recently
deceased father was a serial killer who ren- dered little girls into mini-doll effigies. When a neighbourhood kid goes missing and Cohn is suddenly haunted by visions of dead children, he begins to fear that he may be following in his father’s footsteps (as does a very real cop, who also thinks Brian may be connected to the new crime). Joshua Hale Fi- alkov has done a great job of making Cohn a character with whom readers can sympathize yet still suspect. While I’m uncertain if Fialkov’s por- trayal of schizophrenia is as accurate as he in- tended (judging by his editorials), he’s still telling a very compelling story of a man tormented by his
family’s past, his own present and possible future.
In this King Conanflashback tale, Conan re- lates the story of his capture by the evil wizard
Tsotha-Lanti and his imprisonment in the dun- geons of the Scarlet Citadel, where he faces a monstrous horror. And that’s pretty much it for this issue. While I am a fan of the current Conan cre- ative team, this story could easily have been told in half the length. Instead, it just kind of drags as Conan slouches his way to the inevitable con- frontation between man and beast. Thankfully, Tomas Giorello’s art is absolutely gorgeous. Highly reminiscent of Barry Windsor-Smith’s work, Giorello manages to make even simple dialogue scenes compelling, which is a good thing, since there are so many of them.
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