Action Lab Danger Zone 2019
Written by Jason Martin
Illustrated by Marco Maccagni
Coloured by Geraldo Filho
Lettered by Justin Birch
After narrowly escaping the destruction of her world, Amalgama sets out to cross the galaxy on her quest to Earth and the destruction of the Danger Dolls. But first she needs to hijack a spaceship… and kill kill kill!
As we saw last issue how that creepy little alien thingie was able to survive, crawl into the Amalgama body and claim it as his own. As if that weren’t bad enough once it was firmly in control of the body she went on a killing spree that was almost epic in proportions. There are a couple other aspects that became evidently clear as well and I look forward to seeing how Jason takes those and how they will effect the Amalgama in the long run.
The way that this is being told has some very interesting and unique properties to it. This could be straight up unadulterated madness and yet while we do get to see that because it’s what Jason is good at but no we also get some interesting layers here that you might not be expecting to see. I love that this rooted in revenge against the girls but there is a lot that has to happen before we can even see that encounter happen. Yeah this is a lot more than I had bargained for and it just goes to show that when you judge something based on looks you could miss out on something great. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover is more than apropos to this.
I have a huge amount of admiration for Jason and after this issue that only gets stronger. Why well you’ll have to read the entire thing to truly understand but it’s well worth reading. Still the characterisation that we see is extraordinary and considering she’s the only character who actually speaks in this issue well that’s saying something. That she’s the only talking character in this issue, let that sink in people because it takes some strong writing chips to really create a complex and interesting issue based solely on one character, sure she’s got Lazerbeek but that birdie doesn’t talk. She also encounters one other individual who also doesn’t speak. So yeah this is a sensational full of characterisation and continual understanding of who and what she is.
Marco and Geraldo have yet another opportunity to shine and they take full advantage of that in these pages. There are so many opportunities within these pages for the boys to kind of take the imagery to a bit on the vulgar side but they don’t. She is scantily clad and there’s a lot of “skin” sure but not once did I think twice about seeing her do her thing (for a gay man that’s saying something). The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show off a great eye for storytelling. The creativity and imagination here is fantastic the only thing I wish we’d see more of are backgrounds. The colour work is gorgeous as well. Seeing Space in all it’s glory is utterly brilliant to see. The way that light sources are utilised to create shading and shadows is well done. The colour blocking is great I just wish there were some gradation happening.
This book is innovative, different and completely balls out to the walls fun. The story & plot development, pacing and the characterisation is top notch work and the interiors match it and together it provides the reader with this raucous good time!