Dynamite Entertainment 2015
Written by Tim Seeley & Jim Terry
Illustrated by Jim Terry
Coloured by Aikau Oliva
Lettered by A Larger World Studios
There really is something infinitely cool about Alice Cooper and the legend he’s managed to accumulate all these years. That this fits in so well with the Chaos line should come as no surprise to anyone. So far what Tim and Jim are doing here is pretty amazing in combining the two worlds as if they’ve always existed side by side. Last issue gave us a good look at Alice and what can do and why the various characters are converging on him. This issue things get a little more intense.
So we open up at Alice’s show and the kids are already in the crowd waiting for something to happen. In the bathroom we see a confrontation between Chastity and Vanessa oh and the ghost but before Chastity has a chance to explain why she’s there Vanessa wants payback for what she did. I like this because well as much as I love Chastity she really does tend to leave things on a sour note. Still with what’s about to happen the enemy of my enemy and all that.
So while the girls are hashing it out in the public toilet, god I love saying that, on stage Alice is in for a rude awakening. Kachina his snake familiar appears to him in the middle of a song and cue the moment for all hell to break loose.
So Ernie is in his hotel room away from the action but fear not he’ll be dragged into this as Purgatori shows up. Jim just a favour here made Ernie much scarier than this it’s like he’s a watered down cartoon version of himself and that’s not cool. Purgatori has plans for Ernie and company and it has nothing to do with the Rave, Alice or the rest. I think I see something happening here that I like but I have to wait and see if my suspicions are correct.
The rave is all kinds of cool. A massive crowd of Alice Cooper fans all having their worst nightmares come to life around them. Wreaking mass havoc, bloodshed and mayhem yeah that’s a true treat. It’s also kind of fun to see what the kids fear, I mean sure they are all monsters now but they didn’t always used to be and their little group is fragile at best so this is a great look at them and hopefully gives the readers the feeling they want to see more.
As the story progresses I like that there’s more than meets the eye and a bit of misdirection happening. Some of these characters are Evil there’s no getting around that and it’s really why we love watching them so the slight of hand or misuse of information is in my eyes completely within character. Also there are a few moments of genuine humor thrown in that was great as well it’s nice to see you can sneak that in at unexpected moments.
Overall this really is a great story and it’s showing promise and potential I hadn’t imagined. Not to poo poo Jim but the interiors aren’t really up to snuff. When dealing with the Chaos characters the work needs to be elevated to a much crisper and cleaner style involving detail and oomph and there are way too many moments that they seem like they are done by someone with too little experience in the field, the flatness of the hair, Ernie’s not scary look for example. These are ultra sexy, powerful and menacing characters and they seem very generic and two dimensional to me. It’s got that not quite grasping the characters feel. Sorry but I got to call it like I see it.