Action Lab Entertainment 2015
Created & Written by Anthony Ruttgaizer
Illustrated by Danny Zabbal
Lettered & Coloured by Fred C. Stresing
We open with a perfect example of why we don’t use cell phones while driving. This guy who thinks he’s tougher than he is crashes into a building and all the profits he was taking from the fight well that’s in the wind and being snatched up by bystanders. Though his feelings about extrahumans is clearly evident and they are the new persecuted people, forget women, blacks or gays they are the new “target.”
Then we head back to the arena fight. This is when Jake knows Cooper’s predicament and pulls him aside and the whole how much conversation happens. That’s a helluva sum too people wow and it’s not wonder that Cooper’s seen as a joke and why they’ll start taking it out on his family if he don’t start coughing up more money. I mean he really thought he could count on Jake to bail him out too and that made me laugh because Jake isn’t crazy and he’s definitely a changed man from the one who hung with this crew.
Jake might not be crazy but he’s not helping Cooper out and that means Odinson is called in to teach someone a lesson. While trying to do the smart thing and suss out information on Odinson and his powerset and psychosis his inexperience shows when he is forced to actually fight him. Yeah Jake is ex-army people and getting hit by a three armed fighter, former MMA most likely, means his own anger issues will bubble to the surface and suddenly everyone there knows his little secret.
Well how does Cooper react to all this well it’s incredibly telling. When he’s not snorting coke up his nose he’s trash talking Jake calling him less than human and other things that aren’t so nice of a lifelong friend.
I like Sergeant Alvarez and how he views this but not so much Colonel Kirkson. He’s too by the book I act and think as I’m told military guy. When did eliminating people come before curing people as a priority for the American Government? I realize overpopulation is a problem but there’s got to be a better way to handle this than automatic slaughter of an extrahuman, after all not all are crazy and direct threats to the general population.
Back to the confrontation between Jake and Cooper. This takes up a chunk of time here and it’s damn well done. The personality we see emerge from Cooper is really something else, spoiled cut off rich kid who refuses to grow up and remove that silver spoon has now been given a new lease on life and will ruin his friends life and family to get what he wants. Now Jake has a whole new set of problems to contend with and this part is his own fault.
So what’s next for Jake and how’s he gonna get himself out of this mess he finds himself in is anyone, except Anthony’s, guess.
I have to say I enjoyed the story in the back about Raymond Rowe and how he inspired Odinson though I do have to admit that there’s something about that early photo of the clean cut kid just starting out that I wanna see more of.
Action Lab really does have some of the more unique and interesting takes on stories out there right now. The emerging presence of extrahumans and what they represent and how people who viewed differently are perceived well it’s done exceptionally well.