SAVAGE DRAGON #100
"Meltdown"
Mildly Recommended (5/10)
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Image Comics
Writer/Artist: Erik Larsen
Additional art & inks: Jerry Ordway, Bill Siewkiewicz, Bruce Timm, Tom Townsend, Mike Royer, Frank Cho, John Beatty, Terry Austin, Frank Miller, Carlos Pacheco, Bob Wiacek, Walt Simonson & Marc Silvestri
Colors: Reuben Rude, Abel Mouton, Eric Stephenson, Matt Tyree & Val Staples
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Price: $8.95 US/$14.25 CAN |
Apparently, this issue of Savage Dragon has sold out. I can understand why. It's an impressive package of 100 pages, something one doesn't see outside of the occasional reprint book. The issue also serves as a nice introduction to the ideas and characters Larsen has played with for the past decade. Unfortunately, for all of its accessible points, colorful characters and action, there are also so confusing key scenes that would have been well served by more exposition.
Dragon's return to the more peaceful world he once knew turns out to be less than ideal than he had hoped, and he realizes that he's needed back in the Savage World. He doesn't return alone, though, and he finds that the place offers even more trouble than when he left. In the wake of the Dragon's return, we take a trip through alternate realities, discovering the different fates that awaited Dragon's friends and foes had events over the past two decades transpired differently.
If this book makes one thing clear, it's how unique Erik Larsen's pencilling style is. A plethora of noted inkers pitch in here, and never is Larsen's style overwhelmed. In fact, only Jerry Ordway's style really shines through. Others -- even the prominent, powerful inks of Bill Siewkiewicz -- really don't influence Larsen's dynamic, larger-than-life approach at all.
Larsen clearly attempts to bring readers up to speed on the premise here, not only of the Savage World storyline, but what's gone on in the book in the past 10 years. The problem is that the effect isn't applied consistently. Maybe the alternate histories of Larsen's characters are meant as a payoff for regular readers, but ultimately, it gets old. Things would have been different and led to a different climax. The point is driven home to the point of redundancy.
Despite my disinterest in many of the short stories, Larsen deserves credit what he's accomplished on this title, and judging by the participation of so many prominent industry pros, others would agree. His (almost) uninterrupted run on the title and dedication to his creation and vision of his story is almost unheard of in this industry. Really, aside from Dave Sim's quest to do 300 issues of Cerebus, what other creator has remained true to a comic property he owns by writing and illustrating it so consistently for a decade? No others come to mind, right now, but I'm sure the tally would be a low one.
Note: This comic book was not among this week's new releases.
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