TITLE: Chronicle
STARRING: Michael B. Jordan, Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell
DIRECTOR: Josh Trank
STUDIO: Davis Entertainment, Adam Schroeder Productions
RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 84 min
RELEASED: February 2, 2012

Well, it’s that time of the year again. The time when Hollywood, in all of their infinite wisdom, decides that it isn’t worth competing with the Super Bowl, so they give us a half-baked superhero movie that stars teenagers and usually has some sort of secret government plot.

In years past we have been the unfortunate benefactors of Jumper, Push, I Am Number Four and now this. We did miss a year, but they kind of made up for it with Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It’s not quite the same, as I tend to relate Percy Jackson to Harry Potter more than random dudes with random super powers being chased by a random made up shadow organization.

So now they give us Chronicle. A movie which looks to try and break the mold by going the route of found footage movies like Cloverfield, or any number of recent horror films. While I enjoyed the other movies, I was not looking forward to this one. Found footage films have too much screaming and panicky filled nonsense. The previews looked like that was exactly what I was about to get, but with superpowers.

I could not have been more wrong. The found footage was woven into the story in a way that made sense, and it was pulled off quite well. Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is the awkward high schooler with no friends. He has a cousin Matt (Alex Russell), and Steve (Michael B. Jordan), who appears later. Cursed with a crappy home life, he decides to start recording everything as his outlet. While this seems like just a lazy excuse to get the camera into the hands of someone to accomplish this style of filmmaking, it didn’t feel forced at all. They didn’t always show the audience important or exciting things, like just him having lunch alone or just sitting at home editing videos. This let us get to know Andrew and get inside his world.

This also allowed for a nice story about high schoolers growing closer as their telekinetic powers manifest. We get to see them learn to fly, and use their ability to move objects. It is all of the little things that endear this trio of friends to us. But invariably things must go south so we can get to the final battle sequence where buses are flying into people. You would think that this would look utterly ridiculous, but it looks pretty damn good. When you think about all of the millions of dollars that movie like The Matrix spent and couldn’t give a good final confrontation, you just have to wonder what is wrong with Hollywood. This is a low-ish budget movie and it gives us the type of fight we wish The Matrix could have had. While providing a solid story and good characters, and Chronicle doesn’t feel the need to stretch the movie out unnecessarily to hit some arbitrary run time.

One of the things I had wondered about from the trailer was how they could keep the final confrontation in the same style as the rest of the movie ,with crazy battles happening high in the sky. But they pulled it off and it gave the audience some pretty cool and unique shots. One is from the camera mounted on a police car as it is racing towards the fight, only to get flipped over during the brawl. The found footage style lent itself to the action in a great way while still being able to show enough closeups of everything that is happening.

Overall, Chronicle is a great movie and a great superhero origin story. I have not been this impressed or elated with an original superhero story since Unbreakable. The originality and creativity is more of what movies need and this proves you do not need a big budget to pull it off.

RATING: 9/10

All images from rottentomatoes.com. 

TITLE: The Grey
STARRING: Liam Neeson, Dallas Roberts, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Nonso Anozie
DIRECTOR: Joe Carnahan
STUDIO: Open Road Films
RATING: R
RUN TIME: 117 min
RELEASED: January 27, 2012

 By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja

I have decided to introduce a new term into my reviews that I’m sure has been used on other websites: “Cinematic blue balls.” This is when a movie builds to a moment and just when you think it’s about to happen, the movie ends. The Grey will no doubt cause this to happen to God knows how many moviegoers. That’s not to say this isn’t a good movie though. It is a film movie with several themes running through, dynamic locations and cinematography, skillful direction by Joe Carnahan, and excellent acting by the whole cast.

Ottway (Neeson) works for an oil company guarding a station from wolves and other animals that live in the harsh Alaska wilderness. On the way back home, their plane breaks apart and crashes. Ottway and six other men survive; now they must gather what supplies they can and stay alive while dealing with the elements and constant attacks by wolves.

This movie delivers in many ways. Carnahan has an uncanny eye for the wilderness and can make this frozen hell seem both deadly and beautiful at the same time. His scenes never feel like predictable Hollywood, and every wolf attack or force of nature comes out of nowhere and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The plot is very basic; the plane crashes, there are survivors, and they must find a way to get home before they die. But the story of these characters and the themes that are woven into the it is what elevates this film. You get the standard stuff that comes with men trying to survive in the wilderness: humans being more like animals, trying to hold onto their humanity, etc. The strongest themes are the struggle of these men to find meaning in their life, to keep going on when death seems a certainty, and how this inhospitable land clarifies everything for them. These characters are described in the beginning as being outcasts at the end of the world; their journey to survive is more about them finding something worth living for. Neeson’s Ottway and ex-con Diaz (played by Frank Grillo) are the best examples of the themes in the film and they are fantastic in their individual roles.

As great as I think the majority of this The Grey is, there are one or two flaws that it has. The first being the use of the wolf pack as a stand-in for the how the survivors function; sometimes it is just implied and this helps ratchet up the tension in some scenes, but sometimes it is so overt that it the next scenes become very predictable.

Then we come to the ending [THIS MIGHT BE A SPOILER, SO STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW MORE]. I understand that there is more to this film than what has been advertised prominently. But when you get to the end and the scene that has brought the audience to the seats starts and it feels like a completely natural and logical end to the film, don’t cut to credits right before the action. Our journey has led us to this point, and it has been developed over the course of the film to be the natural ending. Cutting to credits at that big moment does more than hurt the movie, it really pisses the audience off.

This is a big flaw in the movie but I still believe that The Grey is a strong film filled with fantastic performances, a compelling story, beautiful cinematography, and expertly directed scenes.

RATING: 8/10

Images from rottentomatoes.com.
For more from Liam Neeson and Joe Carnahan, check out The A-Team.

TITLE: Pushmo
PLATFORM: 3DS eShop
DEVELOPER: Intelligent Systems
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
ESRB: E
RELEASED: December 8, 2011

By Justin Polak
Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

Just when I think there will be no original smash hit for the 3DS shop, Pushmo appears out of nowhere and proves me wrong. I’m not usually the type of gamer that goes for puzzle games, either! I think of myself as an above average gamer in terms of skills, but something about most games in the genre creates some sort of mental block, and I play as if I recently just started to get into video games.

I suppose the relaxing nature of Pushmo helps ease my nerves. One of my gripes about most puzzle games is non existent here — a sense of urgency. There is no timer, and you aren’t judged on how fast you solve a puzzle. What is it that you are required to accomplish? You control a character that moves series of blocks back and forth up to three levels of planes.  Sometimes these blocks are just as big as your character, and sometimes they are an enormous wall-like structure, along with everything in between. This style of gameplay obviously plays well into having the 3D turned on, but it’s just as easy to find spacial relations with the feature turned off.

As expected of a game developed with close ties to Nintendo, the learning curve is perfect. As you play Pushmo the game eases you into gradually more difficult puzzles and slowly introduces new concepts and tricks to solve levels. Some of said levels are a random series of blocks while others are murals resembling old school sprites. I also found it convenient that if you get stuck you can either reset all blocks to their starting positions. Even if you make a minor flub or miss a jump you can always rewind time! It’s as if the developers put careful thought into crafting this title.

Though you have to play the main game to unlock all the components, you can also build your own Pushmo level and share it online! Obviously, that means that you can try your hand at other user created levels! Once you create a level, the game will have you crate a QR code that you can save on to the SD card. Copy the file on to your computer, post it online and the rest is history. Bear in mind that your levels have to be solvable in order to get a QR code in the first place. That’s actually a relief for me, because I can see tons of users creating unsolvable troll face after unsolvable troll face if they let you release levels that were impossible. In fact, try my level that I quickly threw together in a last minute panic!

Yeah, so I’m no level designer, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t all sorts of cool ideas out there from classic game references to brain teasing walls of hell. Though, no matter whether the level was user created or in the main game, the best puzzles are the ones that appear deceptively simple, but actually make you think. When you finally solve it, you smack your forehead and yell, “Of course!” As far as the main game goes, if you get stuck on a level for a decent amount of time, you can always skip it and come back and try later. To paraphrase what I said earlier, the developers really went out of their way to be as user friendly as possible.

Pushmo is a game you are practically obligated to download to your 3DS. If Nintendo gets a few more title like this one, their slow but sure momentum will finally hit full speed.

RATING: 9.5/10

Front page from nintendolife.com, header image from vgtribune.com, screenshots from joystiq.com, Pushmo level “I rushed this” courtesy of Justin.

TITLE: King Conan: The Phoenix on the Sword #1 (0f 4)
AUTHOR: Timothy Truman
PENCILLER: Tomas Giorello. Cover by Andrew Robinson
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASED: January 25, 2012

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Well this is interesting. Last week we took a look at Tarzan’s origins getting the comic book treatment from Dynamite. Now this week we see Robert E. Howard’s first short story about Conan the Cimmerian getting the same deal. It’s always nice to see the classics revisited, so long as it’s done well. Rest assured, it’s going to be tough to find a take on Conan that’s much better than this. Suck it, Jason Momoa.

The Phoenix on the Sword tells the story of Conan’s attempts to rule the kingdom of Aquilonia, whose evil king has been slayed by our hero. But as we know, Conan is fighter, not a ruler. The kingdom of Aquilonia turns against their former savior, and a band of rebels seeks to kill him.

Truman and Giorello aren’t new to Conan and his world. They previously collaborated on King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel. Those who enjoyed their work in that series should be happy with what they see here. The first thing that really struck me about this issue, and Scarlet for that matter, was the art. Giorello’s characters look so vibrant and real. The older version of Conan we see at the beginning of this issue has a face that’s so convincingly ravaged by both time and war. Later, when we see his youthful counterpart, it’s such an amazing regression. Couple that with the Earthy, “used universe” sort of tones that Jose Villarrubia brings to the table, and this book would almost be worth it’s price without any dialogue.

Fans looking for some of those trademark Conan action scenes will have to wait a bit longer, as this issue sets everything up. But I have no doubt they’ll deliver. We’re introduced to Conan’s future arch enemy, Thoth Amon, who also looks lovely thanks to Giorello and Villarrubia.

All in all, if you’ve never read a Conan story before, this is likely as good a place as any for you to dip your toe in the water. And even if you’ve read them all, the classic never dies.

Front page image from omnicomic.com. Interior image from comicsbulletin.com. 

ARTIST: Lamb of God
ALBUM TITLE: Resolution
RECORD LABEL: Epic Records
RELEASED: January 24, 2011

By Eric Stuckart
Creator, Destroyer

Since breaking into the mainstream back in 2004 with their major label debut Ashes of the Wake, it’s been interesting watching Lamb of God’s trajectory. Unlike many metal bands that get snatched up by the majors just when they’re ripe for picking, the band took the less likely route, refusing to water down their sound.

Resolution is their seventh album as a band, and their fourth on Epic, and despite the band having settled quite well into the well-worn territories of groove metal, they’re still going strong, and they’re not mellowing out any either. If anything, this album had more than a couple surprises that even I wasn’t expecting, far surpassing 2009’s Wrath, which found the band more or less playing it safe, coloring in the lines that they drew themselves with their past few efforts.

The album immediately goes for the throat, opening with “Straight for the Sun,” a raw, sludgy number that earns them the achievement of being the slowest song they’ve ever recorded on an album, and frontman Randy Blythe sounds like he literally coughed up a lung performing the vocals, which considering his style is really saying something. This is quickly countered by “Desolation,” a song that literally jumps out the gate from the song before it, pummeling anything that was left standing.

The noticeable thing about Resolution is how confident the band sound. Unlike on Wrath, which sounded like the album that the band thought was expected of them, this one is particularly hellbent on going its own way, regardless of the outcome. How else would you be able to explain the band opening up with a sludgy, doom-inflected song, only to finish it off with “King Me,” a sprawling epic (for Lamb of God, at least) that lasts nearly seven minutes and ends with female opera vocals and an orchestral arrangement?

Despite how it sounds, this isn’t the sound of the band tempering their sound to make their music more marketable, or some kind of desperate plea for mainstream attention; everything Lamb of God is doing on this album is done so on their terms, and doesn’t feel forced. It’s the natural progression of a band finally breaking free from the chains that seemingly held them in a bit of a holding pattern, debatably over the course of their last four albums.

Sure, all of those albums had their moments, but they all had such a similar style that — discounting production values — they  could have been interchangeable from one album to the next. Resolution isn’t so much of a drastic change that they sound like a completely different band, but it shows enough artistic growth that when some of the less adventurous songs pop up from time to time (“Guilty,” “Cheated” and “Terminally Unique” all come to mind) it’s a bit more forgivable. The only down side to such songs, though, is that Resolution‘s momentum takes a hit each time one of these songs pops up, but the band quickly picks up the slack.

Even a song like “Insurrection,” which features completely clean vocals for the first time — a definite no-no in the oft-closed minded world of metal — sounds more like it was placed in the song for dramatic effect rather than to weasel its way onto radio. It’s a potent curveball that the band throws about three quarters of the way through the album, and it works quite well. The song starts out sounding like what would be best described as modern/alternative rock, but it progressively gets heavier and the cleans give way to Blythe’s typical growled style.

If there’s one complaint that I have about Resolution, it’s that it feels a bit long. Despite only being a scant few minutes longer than any of their albums, clocking in around the 55 minute mark, it pushes the album from being a great metal album to being just a good one. With a few of the songs peppered throughout being a bit interchangeable in both sound and style, trimming some of the fat might have given Resolution a bit more bite. As it is, it’s nothing that really ruins the experience, but it does tend to drag from time to time.

Everything that has made Lamb of God who they are today is found on Resolution in one way or another and the band sounds more energized than they have in a while. Without a doubt, this is due to the fact that they relied less on fitting the mold of their past few albums, and even though there’s a bit of lag in a few of the songs, one cannot deny their ability to still create challenging, relevant metal, all while playing up to their strengths on a technical level.

RATING: 8/10

Front page photo from mymetalbin.com, interior photo from nuskull.hu.

TITLE: The Batman Files
AUTHOR: Matthew K. Manning
PUBLISHER: Andrews McMeel Publishing
PRICE: $100
RELEASED: October 25, 2011

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

In his printed page adventures it’s been established, particularly in recent years, that Batman keeps a journal at the insistence of Alfred. The Batman Files uses that concept to present us with a guide to The Dark Knight’s world, as seen from his point of view. The book also presents mock newspaper clippings, photographs (the latter of which are mostly panels from comic books), and dossiers of the inhabitants of Gotham City.

As far as Batman guide books/encyclopedias go, The Batman Files is pretty good. It’s 13.5 x 10.5 size and leather cover with a magnetized clasp make for an impressive looking book. In terms of the information provided, there was enough in here to educate even the most devout Batman fan. I’m speaking from experience on that one. Nothing amazingly eye-opening, but there were some little character tidbits that I hadn’t known.

The Batman Files is a lovely tribute to the Caped Crusader and his history. But whether or not you want to buy it really depends on what kind of book you’re looking for. As it’s formatted like an actual journal/scrapbook, it doesn’t break the fourth wall by offering first appearance dates for characters, a publishing history, or anything like that. It cheats a bit by presenting characters’ most notable stories (or at least the once in continuity) as “Related Case Files.” For instance, such files for Two-Face would include “The Long Halloween, The Eye of the Beholder, Dark Victory, etc. So if you’re looking for a more complete view of Batman’s history, you don’t want The Batman Files.

It’s also worth noting that by the time this book was released, much of its content was rendered obsolete by the DC Universe reboot. We’re not quite sure how much of it is gone, but we’re definitely looking at outdated version of Batman’s continuity.

I’m obviously being nitpicky here. One of the things that really impressed me about The Batman Files was the way Manning was able to effectively duplicate Bruce Wayne’s “voice” in this book. If you’ve read enough of his comics over the years, I wouldn’t say it’s incredibly difficult to determine things that Batman would or wouldn’t say, or to figure out how he’d say them. But doing a book like this requires the writer to not only get inside Batman’s head, but to do it at various points in the character’s life. Top that off with the task of writing in the voices of Jeremiah Arkham and the various newspaper writers and Gothamites that we hear from this book, and you’ve got a task that would be challenging for even the best of writers, and Manning deserves a lot of credit for it.

The Batman Files is a gorgeous book jam-packed with information and beautiful color artwork from (give or take) the last two decades. It’s a solid gift for Batman buffs, particularly those interested in the ins and outs of the recent mythology. From that standpoint, it’s got just about everything you’d want to know. It’s not for everyone, and the price is a bit steep, but it’s a lovely tribute to Batman and his world.

RATING: 8/10

Front page image from playeraffinity.com. Image 1 from matthewkmanning.blogspot.com. Image 2 from blog.indigo.ca. 

TITLE: Red Tails
STARRING: Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Tristan Wilds
DIRECTOR: Anthony Hemingway
STUDIO: Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox
RATING: PG-13
RUN TIME: 125 minutes
RELEASE DATE: January 20, 2012

By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja

George muthafuckin Lucas; I have never met a single icon who has gone from beloved by so many to being hated by the same people so fast. With his credibility beaten to a pulp, can he still help create a great movie? Red Tails has been a passion project of his for years, and he spent his own money to finance the film, so is the final result worth it?

Inspired by the true story of The Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails follows a group of African American pilots who are stuck far away from the frontlines of World War II and are eager to prove themselves to a military that does not believe they have what it takes to be fighter pilots.

One of the few things that this movie has going for is the aerial combat scenes, which are spectacular. The effects are exquisite and the dogfighting scenes pull you into the film and kick the whole production up a notch. The performances are also strong for the most part and help elevate the screenplay past its obvious limitations; the most memorable being David Oyelowo’s rebellious pilot Lightning.

Too bad the rest of the film suffers from substantial problems. The screenplay by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder is filled with some very corny dialogue; the first few minutes of the film make it clear when bomber pilots recite the action in the most obvious and wooden way possible. The characters are distinctive enough to make them somewhat entertaining and distinctive, but most come off as walking clichés and never develop so much that the audience will genuinely care about what happens to most of them. The attempts to create conflict are present but lack any real substance.

The beginning may be corny, but it establishes the story and the film’s strengths well. The ending closes the film out effectively despite some wooden dialogue and acting, but the middle is bogged down by a poorly developed story; the romance subplot that was fun in the beginning dragged on for too long and the attempts at character conflict drag the whole thing down, making a two hour movie feel like four. The score by Terence Blanchard shifts between strong orchestral arrangements (that fits this type of film) and a bad ’80s soundtrack that fits horribly with the movie.

I get what the filmmakers were going for; they were trying to create a film that duplicated the war films in the ’40s where every line seems like it was ripped straight from a recruiting poster, and in that regard they succeeded in making a quality film. The film’s air combat scenes and the few scenes where characters shine keep the film entertaining; but the overall devotion to this style of film, the weak screenplay, and the dreadful score keep Red Tails from flying high.

RATING 4.5/10

Front page image and interior stills from collider.com.

TITLE: Haywire
STARRING: Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas
DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh
STUDIO: Relativity Media
RATING: R
RUN TIME: 93 min
RELEASE DATE: January 20, 2012

By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja

Steven Soderbergh is a director who I have always respected. Apart from his more commercial work, when he gets an idea for a movie or sees someone to build a movie around he follows it through to the end. The result is sometimes not the best film, but I admire his determination to follow through on his idea. The latest example is the film Haywire, a movie in which Soderbergh builds a spy film around MMA fighter Gina Carano.

Mallory Kane (Carano) is a former Marine and an independent contractor who is hired to handle work that intelligence agencies feel requires her skills. After a job in Barcelona, she is asked to partner up with another agent (Fassbender) for a routine assignment. Mallory discovers that she is being framed by her boss and ex-boyfriend (McGregor), so she goes on the run to clear her name.

Soderbergh has built the whole movie around Carano, and she delivers for the most part. She has charisma and does well with the material; she is not the best actress, but she shows some skill, carries the movie, and should improve over time if Haywire is a hit. The main draw is the action scenes and they deliver better than I expected; they are kinetic, brutal, and Carano shows exactly why Soderbergh would want to build an action movie around her skill.

The plot of the film is window dressing for the action scenes; but it gets the film moving forward, has a couple of nice character moments, and it doesn’t clog the movie up and overshadow the action sequences. To help sell the film, Soderbergh has assembled a superb supporting cast that helps give the film some weight.

The cast is both a benefit and a bit a hindrance. The story could have used some fleshing out here and there, but the way it is doesn’t fully utilize the amazing supporting cast that the film has.The movie was made for action scenes for Carano, which are great, but because other areas are lacking, the movie doesn’t become too noteworthy. Soderbergh stages some great action scenes, but one or two could have been great but became too stylized and take from the action.

Haywire may not stick with people for a very long time, but Carano and Soderbergh have still come up with a very entertaining action film and that it’s worth the ticket price.

RATING: 7.5/10

TITLE: Underworld: Awakening
STARRING: Kate Beckinsale, Sandrine Holt, Theo James, Michael Ealy, India Eisley
DIRECTOR: Måns Mårlind & Björn Stein
STUDIO: Lakeshore Entertainment, Sketch Films, Screen Gems
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 88 min
RELEASED: January 20, 2011

By Eric Stuckart
Creator, Destroyer

With the Underworld films, it’s important to not really think too much into it. While the back story itself — heavily infused with a centuries-long war between the Vampire and the werewolf-like Lycan clans — actually makes sense and doesn’t really allow itself to get stuck into laborious debates about the whole logic of it all, it’s not really ever presented in the films as the main draw.

That would be more or less reserved for what you know everyone comes to these movies to see: guns, explosions, and Kate Beckinsale running around in that outfit of hers, kicking all sorts of supernatural ass. Beckinsale returns as the Death Dealer Vampire Selene in the fourth installment — her third go-round as the character — of the Underworld franchise.

Awakening picks up six months after the events of Underworld: Evolution, with Selene and the others having found themselves in a kill-or-be-killed battle with the humans, who have finally learned of the existence of vampires and werewolves. Naturally, the humans view the Lycans and Vampires as humans infected with a virus, and are looking to pretty much eradicate all of the infected, so as to not risk another breakout. The whole introduction to the chaos is a bit rushed, and could have benefited from expanding in its own right, but instead, Selene and Michael Corvin — the first Vampire/Lycan hybrid — are captured.

The film then flashes forward 12 years later, with Selene waking up from a cryogenic suspension chamber in a medical research facility. From here on out, it follows her search for Michael, who she thinks was in the other chamber with her. She ends up finding out that the other test subject was Eve, a child that the scientists created while Selene was frozen using her and Michael’s DNA. The rest of the film follows a bit of a conspiracy theory trail to find out why the Lycans are thriving and growing in numbers despite the particularly thorough purge over a decade ago.

From a visual standpoint, Underworld: Awakening is on par with past entries in the series, with its dark, gothic tone intact, and the Lycans looking as gruesome as ever. But I must admit how much better 3D films such as this look when they’re actually filmed with 3D cameras. Despite how much I hate the format’s obvious attempts to try and raise ticket prices even more, when it’s done well, it’s done well, and credit must be given. Although there’s quite a few in your face gags throughout, the subtle bits that added to the atmosphere of the film were pretty well done. One example in particular was the way a certain type of gas filled the room during a shootout between Selene and the Lycans.

Unfortunately, there really isn’t all that much holding the story together, and it’s hard to not look at it without a little bit of the old been there, done that. Granted, I’d take this over the teen romance drama of the Twilight films any day, but once you strip away all the flash and action, there really isn’t that much in terms of cohesive plot. The story serves more of a purpose to string along each fight, either between Selene and humans, or her and the Lycans, with not much of a true resolution. Well, that and overwrought slow motion shots of Beckinsale walking all pouty and “bad ass” in front of the camera.

Worst of all, Awakening ends with a bit of a lead-in for an obvious sequel, should they choose to go that route. Nothing about the film is terrible; it’s just that Awakening is going through the motions already laid out in previous installments. Ultimately, I would have rather seen what happened that lead to the humans learning of their existence rather than another fight between the clans. Something like that could have lead to a very interesting team up between the two. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, isn’t it?

RATING: 6/10

Front page image and interior stills from collider.com.

TITLE: Lord of the Jungle
AUTHOR: Arvid Nelson
PENCILLER: Roberto Castro. Variant covers by Alex Ross, Ryan Sook, Paul Renaud, Lucio Parillo. 
PUBLISHER: Dynamite Entertainment
PRICE: $1.00
RELEASED: January 18, 2012

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

I’d wager that when the average person hears the name “Tarzan,” they think of a cartoony guy in a loin cloth swinging from a vine. I’ll admit to that image accounting for a great deal of my knowledge of the character. But by remaining faithful to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of The Apes, Dynamite Entertainment is giving us what may turn out to be an eye-opener for readers less familiar with Tarzan and his world.

We kick the book off with John Greystoke and his pregnant wife Alice being marooned on an island. They are forced to survive on their own, which becomes complicated when they are forced to fend off the native wildlife, specifically the apes. Eventually, an ape attack leads to the infant son of Lord and Lady Greystoke ending up in the hands of the apes, sending him down the path to becoming the one and only lord of the jungle…

What surprised me about this issue was how gripping it was. The story makes it difficult to suspend your disbelief sometimes, particularly when it comes to the apes and some of the things they do. But Nelson and Castro do a great job making the apes look both natural and imposing. Corny as it sounds, it actually made me consider how frightened I’d be if I ever came face-to-face with a hostile ape.

Still, Nelson adds a bit of unneeded silliness to the equation by limiting the apes’ dialogue to sounds like “Oo oo!” and “Aah aah!” Given the choice, I’d actually prefer the apes have no dialogue bubbles, so that Castro’s art could do the talking.

One might argue that this issue has a logic problem. Firstly, there’s not a definite reason as to why the apes attack the Greystokes near the end of the issue. It appears to occur in response to a tragedy that occurs among the apes, but the tragedy doesn’t necessarily merit an attack like that. Theoretically, they could simply have stumbled on to them immediately afterward. But from a storytelling standpoint that seems a little too convenient.

In any event, Lord of the Jungle is downright educational from a mythology standpoint, as it draws readers into the true story of Tarzan. One would hope that trend will continue. And for only a dollar, it’s certainly worth the asking price.

Front page image from comixology.com. Interior image from comicbook resources.com.