American Gothic Press 2016
Created & Written by Jeremy Robinson
Illustrated by Matt Frank
Coloured by Diego Rodriguez
Lettered by Marshall Dillon
It's here -- the final showdown between man and monster of vengeance! Nemesis is rampaging through downtown Boston as a scourge of military fighter planes pummel her with ammunition, but the kaiju has one more growth stage before she carries out her verdict on Alexander Tilly. Can Hudson stop her? Should he stop her?
This is how you do a Kaiju story people. Use legend, lore and other worldly origin tactics to create a new and unique creature that is the spirit of vengeance. Let it grow, evolve and smash it’s way through cities on it’s quest while man tries to stem the tide, minimize the damage and figure out how to stop it. Ultimately man has little hope of stopping such a creature and yet the dilemma is not one for those who give up easily.
Jeremy has introduced to a world where an ancient set of bones was used to transform a girl into something more. Something the General could use to stop the effects of aging, time and disease in his own body, an act of pure selfish greed. This set of bones could have been of a dragon or a kaiju or simply a creature who settled on Earth from space it’s true origin remains a mystery and one that fascinates the mind because it is so open ended. The longer it stays that way the longer we’ll be happy because not all things should be solved.
Hudson and Collins have this partnership to them that’s so nice to see, reminds of Hart to Hart, Remington Steele, Moonlighting and yes the X-Files. One rational, the other less so with more an open mind and acting on gut instinct. They balance each other out completely and accept each other and heck there’s even a kind of romance thing going on between them, after all this how can there not be? They are some exciting, fresh new characters and while this story may be over here’s hoping that this isn’t the last we see of them.
Matt’s interiors have been some of the nicest i’ve seen. The level of attention to detail here has been amazingly good. Nemesis in all her incarnations has been both beautiful and menacing and all around one of those creatures whose deadliness couldn’t be more attractive. His eye for storytelling through pages and panels has been a joy to see. He can bring so much joy and emotion off the page to excite and thrill readers and with the incredibly colouring by Diego completing the bigger picture this has been an incredible journey visually.
Godzilla has nothing on this book as our human protagonists really do set the stage and make the world much more accessible for the reader. Not to mention we’ve got a slew of characters, monsters and scenarios that have been left open ended so as to harken a return. This has been a story whose pacing and revelations, twists and turns not to mention character growth all around has made it one of the strongest of it’s kind.