I understand this is a General Zod book. So I knew violence was going to happen. Writer Joe Casey is filling in some history of Zod, showing maybe how he became what he is. We continue to see the sort of Jor-El obsession Zod has. And Casey does a great job of including some Kryptonian lore and some DC alien races, giving this a bit of depth. But these feel like crumbs. Last issue was dominated by pages of Zod just killing Khunds. This issue is dominated by pages of Zod killing Kaffarians. I need a bit more.
This also starts the book on a whole new direction which means all the plots we started on New Kandor in the first 4 issues seem to be in the rear view mirror unless we get back there.
It all means I kind of don't know what to make of this series so far, a mix of an interesting look at Zod in the midst of countless pages of gore.
Dan McDaid continues to bring a nice rough feel to the proceedings. Zod is monstrous in this, still devastated by the explosion last issue. McDaid adds some nice flourishes to panels, having the art add to the mood. I love his scenes on Krypton. And the long violent scenes are beautifully horrifying.
But I do wish the issues had some more story in them.
On to the issue.
The prisoners all have collars which can inflict pain. So Zod quickly takes control of the situation.
We start with a flashback to Zod as a child, being cast out to find strength in banishment. We saw Zod do this to Lor early in the series.
I did like this panel. Zod's father looms over him, casting that shadow behind Zod. But the armor's shape make the shadow look like black flames.
Between Zod's angry countenance and this look of black fire, we get an almost demonic image. Nice panel construction there.
Thrown out of his house, Zod goes to the Fire Falls where he heats up a crystal and burns his family crest into his chest. Now that is insane. It shows the familial fervor Zod has as well as his sadism, even towards himself.
I really love this scene for a couple of reasons. The Fire Falls are my favorite Kryptonian landmark so any time I see them is fine with me. Casey does add some new elements to the legend saying the Falls had temples hidden behind them.
But this scene also seems to show us the first time Jor-El met Zod, as a child at the Falls right after Zod mutilated himself. As this turns out to be a fever dream for Zod, Jor ages before his eyes, chastising Zod for living in this moment of pain forever.
But this scene also seems to show us the first time Jor-El met Zod, as a child at the Falls right after Zod mutilated himself. As this turns out to be a fever dream for Zod, Jor ages before his eyes, chastising Zod for living in this moment of pain forever.
This is my favorite thread in the book ... that Zod is plagued by visions of Jor-El. I am used to a Zod that dismisses Jor-El as a fool. But I think this Zod actually respects Jor-El.
Last issue ended with a nearly dead Zod being picked up by a starship. It turns out to be a Kaffarian prison ship. And a horribly burned Zod, looking more like a cadaver than a person, awakens in a medical bay. Although burned, Zod maintains his Kryptonian power and just rips his way through the ship, killing security guards and wardens alike.
Many pages of it.
It looks like a horror movie, with a ghoulish Zod ripping his way through bodies. Seriously, McDaid does wonderfully disgusting work here. Zod looks like a decaying zombie.
Many pages. Eight to be exact of this early fight.
The Kaffarians are a deep cut by Casey. I remember one was the warden of the new Takron Galtos in the Legion!
Learning it is a prison ship, Zod releases all the prisoners and burns the biggest threat/loudmouth in the group, a warrior of the Citadel.
It is efficient if not grotesque, slowly burning a hole through this guy with heat vision.
The Citadel guards are less of a deep cut given their ties to the Teen Titans and Omega Men.
These cutthroats aren't prisoners of Zod. They're soldiers for him ... or they taste the pain.
I suppose Zod is a military leader. He didn't really have an army on New Kandor. He is a fascist leader. He needs troops. And right now he has nowhere to go to, no one to be with ...
This turn of events makes sense given the tumult of his life now.
As a Legion fan, seeing the diverse aliens made me think of that team. So Zod calling them the Legion of Zod was a nice nod.
So what to do with this issue. The Krypton scenes gave us some more backstory of Zod. I liked the Jor-El part. Seeing how cruel Zod's father was explains a lot about who Zod is. And even this late turn of Zod forming an army was a cool turn.
But there are about 13 pages in the book of over the top violence with little plot progression. Four pages of violence through the ship would be fine with me. Four more was excessive. Give me more story.
I am becoming more enamored of McDaid's style the longer this title goes. Put him on a horror book!
Overall grade: B-
3 comments:
It sounds as if this is a six-issue story - if even that - stretched out to 12 issues. I’ve no interest in Zod other than as an occasional escaped Phantom Zone. I’d not be surprised were this comic to get an early cancellation.
Bad guy books can be tricky. I think some comic creators like doing them because they offer an opportunity to stretch the "grim dark" muscles that they can't in sunny hero books.
I understand where you're coming from in this review, but ultimately can't agree with your conclusion. First, let me make one thing clear: I have no problem with content that is grim and dark. Reality is often grim and dark, and so fiction that meaningfully comments on lived experience can by extension be grim and dark if it's in service of an attempt to make a serious commentary on the world or the behavior of behavior of people within what humanity can realize about its place in the world. To say however that grimness and darkness are potentially legitimate aspects of a fully realized world view foes does not mean that they are always prima facie foundations of a fictional narrative attempting to build a world. If grimness and darkness feature in a story, they must serve a valid storytelling purpose such as character development, world building, or creating a compelling goal to center a narrative around. Grimness and darkness for the sake of grimness and darkness is just grimdark meaninglessness - what Tom Wolfe called "Pornoviolence" - and degrades any material featuring it by substituting intellectually engaging narrative development for mindless brutality.
Mindless brutality and grimdarkness are unfortunately the essence of this misbegotten series. We start with Zod being mentally disturbed, angry, and paranoid. He gets into a fight with his son, kicks him out, and becomes angrier and more mentally disturbed. Then he gets into a fight with his wife, before getting into a fight with Khunds, and finally getting into this latest fight on board the prison ship that picked him up. All that happens is he just gets more isolated as he loses his wife and the half of Kandor he had with him, while becoming ever more crazy, angry, and paranoid. That's it. The sum total of his character development is essentially to become even more of what he was at the beginning, albeit now alone.
As for the narrative, it's extremely simple and repetitive. Zod fights somebody, beats a bunch of people to a pulp while taking substantial damage, doubles down on his core traits, rinse wash repeat. To the extent the narrative moves along at all, it's not so much because of Zod's own agency or development (with the possible exception of his decision to banish his son), but because external events suddenly interfere with his life and force him to react. Things happen in this story because the author and editor need them to happen so that over the top violence can occur and the setting can change in order to keep the audience engaged. In a good story, the author and editor should feel confident that the narrative and characters should be enough to engage the audience in their own right. The author's and editor's fixation on the action and scene changes in this story thus seems like a sort of tacit admission that they know the characterization and plot are too weak to stand on their own and keep an audience hooked.
That ultimately is also why the grimdarkness of the piece just feels like it's there for no reason other than to self consciously make the story grim and dark, both as a way to obfuscate the lack of strong character development and compelling narrative themes in the story and as a way to provide mindless entertainment for the kind of reader who just has a fascination with gazing on panel after panel of brutal imagery. In that sense, the series feels a lot like watching the later Saw or other mindless torture porn films. Is there an audience out there for that kind of entertainment? Sure. Anybody who actually cares about good storytelling though arguably isn't part of that kind of an audience. Comics like this are why non-comics readers often think the whole medium is literary trash, and by extension help to hinder actually good comics from getting the recognition they deserve from mainstream audiences. Best case scenario: D.C. cancels this thing early and replaces it with something else related to the Kryptonian side of the DCU that has actual quality storytelling.
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