SUPERNATURAL LAW #31
"Trail of the Trial of the Mummy"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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Exhibit A Press
Writer: Batton Lash
Artists: Batton Last & Melissa Uran
Editor: Jackie Estrada
Price: $2.50 US |
The concepts serving as the foundation of this title are brilliant; Lash has created a clever springboard for genre fiction parody. The trouble is that I wish he'd go further with it. I'm looking for more silliness. I'm looking for over-the-top satire, but too often, he seems to play it straight. The ideas are solid; the execution didn't work for me here.
The man entrusted with the stewardship of an ancient and dangerous Egyptian sarcophagus loses it in a poker game to a crooked casino owner, and Wolff and Byrd are called in to prevent the opening of the mummy's coffin. The keys to the mummy's control and curse lie with a trial that took place 4,000 years ago and a young woman who has some kind of mysterious link to the sarcophagus that not even she understands.
Lash's cartoony style seems just right for a parody. His stuff seems a little cramped, though. He's trying to convey a lot of information -- both in the visuals and in the dialogue -- and the art and letters encroach on one another a lot. Uran's art -- used to depict flashback scenes set in ancient Egypt -- capture the sense of the historic while still maintaining a consistent tone with Lash's art for the main story. Uran's style is quite strong, her characters thoroughly expressive. I hope to see more of her work in the future.
Lash's story seems clearly inspired by the various Mummy movies we've seen over the years, and specifically by the recent Brendan Fraser/Rachel Weisz flicks, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Lash combines the Mummy monster concept and legends nicely with legalese and the practice of law. There's a ton of potential in the core Supernatural Law concept.
The contrast of the outrageous with the serious tone of the law should make for more laughs, though. Little in this story really grabbed me. Nothing struck me as laugh-out-loud funny, and at times, the script was even predictable. Still, the Mummy idea is clever and entertaining; I just wish Lash had dressed it up a bit more.
Note: This comic book was released on Oct.3, not Oct.10.
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