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26th April 2024

Image Comics

Injection Vol 1 (Review)

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“Injection” Vol 1 (review)
Image Comics, July 2016
Writer: Warren Ellis

British writer Warren Ellis has been intensely prolific over the past year, penning the following titles:

a. “Trees“, another Image Comics publication;
b. James Bond – Vargr;
c. a title for Marvel Comics, “Moon Knight”;
d. another title for Marvel Comics, “Karnak”;
d. a novel entitled “Normal”.

“Injection” is the latest from Mr Ellis, and it consists of his trade mark dense concepts and dry wit. But Mr Ellis is treading on old ground in other ways, too.

If you were to squint long enough, “Injection” is a blurred, fuzzy, contemporary and bleaker version of Mr Ellis’ wondrous title, “Planetary” (1998-2009, Wildstorm Comics). In “Planetary”, three (and sometimes four) archeologists explore mysteries each of which have a core in popular culture. These range from pulp heroes from the 1930s to Japanese monster movies to American and English superheroes.

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Renato Jones: The One % #1, 2, 3 (review)

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“Renato Jones: The One %” #1, 2, 3 (review)
(Image Comics, 2016)
Writer: Kaare Kyle Andrews

This is yet another remarkable title from Image Comics, the innovators in American comic books.

The concept of billionaire vigilantes seeking to avenge their parents’ death is well-known in the superhero genre. Yet never has the concept been stripped to such a granular level and imbued with a sense of angry class warfare. If indeed this is some distillation of the Batman formula, it is barely recognisable as such.

Mr Andrews begins his attack on the concept of servants and masters with the front cover. “Created, Written, Drawn, Colored And Owned By Kaare Kyle Andrews”‘ reads the byline, with the word “owned” emphasised in red text. Mr Andrews wishes readers to know that his creative efforts on the title automatically vest in the publisher, and that he is not a hired man servicing a character property. There is a sense, intentional or otherwise, that to buy the book is to directly support the creator.

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She Wolf – Spell Number One: Shapeshifting

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“She Wolf – Spell Number One: Shapeshifting”
(Image Comics, June 2016)
Writer: Rich Tommaso

This comic is something more than a suburban tale of teenage witchcraft, but it is hard to define what that advancement on such a well-worked concept is.

“She Wolf” is a story about a teenager living near a place called Tomahawk Lake and attending Sparta High School. The North American location is not otherwise described but it is all suggestive of a semi-rural location, an ordinary American town located near the woods. The teenager, Gabby, bears scars down her face. These are apparently the consequence of being raked by a werewolf named Brian, a classmate.

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Pretty Deadly #10 (review)

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Pretty Deadly #10 (review)
(Image Comics, June 2016)
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick

A dark, strange comic which started as an infusion of American mysticism and the Western cowboy tradition, “Pretty Deadly” was as stark on the comics landscape as a hoodoo in the Sonora.

An example of this strangeness is the narrative. It is a conversation between a decomposing rabbit, shot in the head and its brains and skull exposed and twisted by the impact of the bullet, and a butterfly. The horror of the rabbit’s decaying appearance is juxtaposed with the gentle and patient dialogue. The two creatures ramble, Hemingway on a calm day, a whimsical lull punctuated by eerie horror and a crescendo of violence, and the rabbit disturbingly rots away during the course of the plot, whittled down to a ruined skeleton.

This title has been the subject of controversy. Yet commercially it has been extremely successful, a happy by-product of the quality and novelty of this work.

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