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SUPERMAN/TARZAN: SONS OF THE JUNGLE #1
Recommended (8/10)
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Dark Horse Comics/DC Comics (Elseworlds imprint)
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Pencils: Carlos Meglia
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Steve Dutro
Editor: Phil Amara & Eddie Berganza
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
Son of a bitch, they did it again.
I don't know how they do it, but just about every time Dark Horse and DC Comics team one of the latter's super-heroes with one of the former's other-media properties, it makes for a good read. Dixon plays with two of fiction's best known icons, and it makes for great entertainment.
Bloodthirsty sailors are about to maroon Lord Greystoke and his pregnant wife in a remote jungle land, but a fiery streak in the sky makes them think of better of it. As the two aristocrats make their way back to civilization, a child emerges from the ship that was at the heart of that fireball, and a female ape that recently lost her child takes the extraordinary child for her own. As the powerful man-ape grows up in the jungle, Greystoke's child, Clayton, is brought up to be the perfect English nobleman, but he mopes about the estate, feeling as though he doesn't belong.
Meglia's art is ideal when it comes to bringing out the bestial nature in many of the characters, whether they're the apes with whom Kal-El lives or the brutes aboard the ship that threatened the elder Greystoke. There's a wonderfully organic yet angular look to the jungle setting as well. Stewart's dark and muted colors bring an appropriate dire mood to the book as well, and I found Dutro's big letters to be quite striking for some reason.
Though there's a rich, dark atmosphere, this story is really about fun. It's fun seeing a Kryptonian Tarzan-like figure. It's kind of fun to see Clayton moping around England, because we know why he feels so lost. I just hope Dixon doesn't fall into the usual Elseworlds trap and place Lois Lane in the Jane role. It's far too predictable.
In your typical Elseworlds story, Superman would take Tarzan's place and the story would focus on that and nothing more. But what makes this different from the Elseworlds mold is the inclusion of Greystoke. It's his role that's the variable in this story. I don't know how he's going to fit into it, and I can't wait to find out.
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