Action Lab: Danger Zone 2015
Written by Shawn Gabborin
Illustrated by Michela Da Sacco
Coloured by Daniel Morales
Well now alright this series is just so darn good. To catch up the folks trapped inside the puppets all these years have been freed given human bodies by Madam Adon. She only asked that she get to keep the puppets in exchange. See she has the power to let people inhabit the puppets for a short while so they may exact the kind of revenge against people and get away with it. It’s obvious to me that she has a much more nefarious plans for the puppets than we’ve seen thus far so waiting for that reveal has been nicely drawn out by Shawn.
The opening well it just goes to show for Madam Adon things are proceeding as usual. I’ve got to hand it Michela because dang girl this is great stuff! I love that it’s bloody and creepy and yet not over the top gore. Just enough to make you fascinated but not enough to gross ya out. Plus the depiction of the six armed gunslinger yeah that’s pretty dope too. I will say it does a lot for wanting to see more of Madam Adon and learn how she got into this so perhaps this won’t be the only arc she’s in.
I’m surprised but not that the members of the group would be meeting up with one another now that they have bodies again. They’ve been together for so long I guess that kind of family bond they all share is hard to shake regardless of how much they’d like to think otherwise. A great nod too to Shawn for having Hans, the Jester, write a manuscript of what their lives have been like. Yes it would be fiction but that would be one helluva interesting read were it real.
There’s a lot to really like about this series and it goes so far above and beyond that it brings the franchise back into prominence. The writing and characterization are things special to this series that you can’t get from movies, after all while we wouldn’t mind a five hour movie they don’t make them. So learning more and more about the people inside the puppets well it’s been a real treat and has caused me to see them in a completely different light. Yes I have my favorites always have but now those I had dismissed or didn’t connect with previously are garnering more of my interest and that’s because of the way Shawn handles the writing.
I’ve also got to say the ending kind of took me by surprise. For various reasons but that’s really a good thing because it’s not easy to surprise your readers like this.
With Michela doing the interiors there’s really a marvelous blend of this reality and fantasy at play with one another. The attention to detail and the page layouts and panel usage are used spectacularly. That much of what we see deals in everyday ordinary humans she’s able to keep us interested in them without making them seem caricatures of people. Then of course the violence and the puppets themselves, the real draw here, are done with such creativity and imagination that surpasses any and all expectations.
Action Lab:Danger Zone has a 5 star book here it’s the most complete, honest and accurate depiction of a franchise i’ve ever seen.