Valiant Entertainment 2021
Written by Max Bemis
Illustrated by Nathan Stockman
Coloured by Triona Farrell
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
NEW VILLAINS have captured our teen heartthrob hero. What’s their master plan and what do these monsters trying to eat Savage have to do with it?
I love Max, he really is some sort of mad genius and you can see this in his music as well as with his writing in comics. I mean Professor Hanley Nealon alone is a character I’d never thought we’d see again in this day and age. I mean with all the cancel culture folks screaming over every little thing it’s nice to see him be this weirdly eccentric stereotype character who adds a lot of psychotic moments with his seeming gender fluidity. This nutjob could very well be the character find of the decade in my humble opinion. I had so much fun reading this and for so many various reasons that I forgot for a moment how much fun comics can actually be. This is escapism at its finest as we get to see Kevin get his first taste of what it’s like to have those after him in this world where they are smarter than the creatures from whence he came.
I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is amazing and with the dialogue as it is we are not only entertained, having giggle fits but we’re really getting to know the characters thanks to these interactions. The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story I didn’t want it to end.
I am thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being structured. With how the layers within the story continue to grow and emerge we are seeing and meeting new friends and foes. Plus it’s just funny to see Kevin have a crush on a teenage girl who dismisses him and is rather quite brilliant. While we also learn the kind of man his brother truly is in the process. The way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is beautifully rendered.
The interiors here match the story brilliantly! While this is such traditional style artwork it really does wonderful things with the linework its varying weights and techniques to bring out this gorgeous detail work. Whether it is the Professor, the dinosaurs or the lab itself the work screams at the reader in the best ways possible. The composition within the panels, including the inclusion of the backgrounds do a wondrous job in bringing us this depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope of the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is gorgeous and how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered exquisitely.
Valiant has such a great range of titles and honestly that this one is one that takes a different approach from the hard edged action stories and becomes something more funny with this dark sense of humour makes it all the more appealing. There are some wonderful twists & turns that we see along the way to keep the reader guessing and on their toes and it’s the combination of all these things that showcases why Max is such a talented writer.