Dynamite Entertainment 2017
Written by Max Bemis
Illustrated by Eoin Marron
Coloured by Chirs O’Halloran
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
Dale's life has been nothing even close to normal since a flying monster descended on his planet and destroyed it, but things get even weirder as he discovers the Centipede's history, in what can only be described as a psychedelic trip down the creature's memory lane.
While the other Atari book is able to make their game more realistic Max got to go outside the box and bring the game a completely different way. Kudos for it too because each issue brings us further and further into the story and it’s so gosh darn good. I’ll admit to being a little lost and confused at first but it was so well done I had to continue and now I’m expecting things to be weird and trippy and all over the place because it should be. Dale is alone on a planet with the Centipede and his Spider minions, alone, constantly fighting so therefore everything should reflect his now broken mind. Max has impressed me because he proves he can write in different styles seemingly effortlessly.
Damn Dynamite and their sensibilities though I have to say seeing Dale see his head on a baby centipede was one of the most eye catching moments I’ve seen. Impressive is an understatement but then I shouldn’t be surprised any longer but that I am is wonderful. This whole issue is pretty much the experience Dale has while on a psychedelic mushroom trip and to be honest I would’ve thought that was his life anyway but to see what’s come before and have that weirdness and the unexplained amped up way past 10 blows my mind.
It’s kind of funny how easily Dale’s mind allows him to embrace this trip. Not fighting what he is at the moment and following momma around. Well there is a timeline here and it has me slightly wondering if this is for us to denote how much time has passed during his time laying there having this crazy trip of if it’s actually how long he’s under it’s influence. Either way it’s interesting to see Dale’s experience in this way because it’s giving him a unique view of what the centipede has gone through, which is surprising.
I think Eoin must have had the time of his life bringing this one to life. That little centipede body with Dale’s head and the changes we see over time and through his experiences as a centipede have so much range in them. Plus we get to see a few new never seen before aliens as well and it’s great to see his creativity and imagination on these pages. His eye for storytelling is fantastic and it seems to be getting stronger with each issue which is wonderful to see. The use of angles, perspective and backgrounds are amazingly well done and his own unique style is perfect for telling this story.
The way that this story is structured and how it flows is extremely well done. The characterisation here is really very interesting. How we see Dale evolve over the course of the issue was some very fine work. I am also a huge fan of the fact that this is as much story driven as it is about having action sequences. I like that you have to actually read this and catch the subtlety in the way it’s written. I would never have thought to gone in this direction of a video game that really doesn’t lend itself to immediate translation to another medium. So I doth my cap to these folks for bringing this to us and I look forward to next issues conclusion.