Dynamite Entertainment/Atari 2017
Written by Max Bemis
Illustrated Eoin Marron
Coloured by Chris O’Halloran
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
Dale is on a hero’s journey, but it is not one for glory. It is for revenge. He has survived this long on his own, but now he has decided the only thing left for him to do is kill the giant monster that took everything away from him!
I actually am liking this more and more the further we get into it. I thought that perhaps an Earth-like planet that used to siphon our entertainment for themselves was kind of tacky but hey it is what it is. Instead we’ve got Dale who is all alone on this planet facing off against a giant flying centipede and it’s humongous spider minions. Solitude does some really weird things to people and that Max is able to understand this and bring us this pretty in-depth look at a man going through hell.
So while there is a definite sense of silliness involved with the story, after all Dale does go on about how stupid the Centipede is and yet still managed to destroy everyone on his planet but him, there’s also a nice serious story happening. So the humour is used to hide the reality of the situation and that’s that Dale is slowly but surely going crazy, or he’s already there. I mean it’s not easy to portray someone the way Max is doing with Dale and it’s a very darn good study in contrast.
I’m also a fan of the interior artwork here as well. It isn’t exactly detail oriented or what I would classify as tight it’s got some interesting look and feel to it. The centipede could be portrayed as more terrifying and less gimmicky but it is what it is. Still it has this great unique style to it that mixes the old school underground vibe with a modern sensibility. Also the way page layouts are used and the creativity and imagination of the work is great to see. Plus the use of the maze was a huge bonus for me.
I do like that Dale’s actions this issue lead him to a bunker where he has to recuperate and then we see him thinking of his past. It’s these little moments that kind of define him in ways that we aren’t going to get through current events. What happened between him and his best friend was a nice little touch and one I wasn’t expecting so kudos to Max on that one. It’s nice that it’s just slipped into this without muss, fuss or fanfare and it’s just there as normal as can be.
I like the way we’re seeing the character evolution of Dale here. From the actions he takes to the look at his past and how the arrival of the centipede affected his planet it all conspires to make for a great tale. Okay so it bears little resemblance to the game I used to play as a kid but that’s okay there’s no way to make that close to it anyway.
So far i’m mightily impressed with the Atari-Dynamite collaboration and I look forward to more of them in the future and quite possibly the return of Atari Force!