The Joker’s Asylum: Killer Croc – Review

By Mike Raicht (writer), David Yardin and Cliff Richards (art), Rodney Ramos (inks, pg. 21), Joe Villarrubia (colors), Patrick Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Another tale spun by the Clown Prince of Crime, this one dealing with Killer Croc’s escape from Arkham and his adoption by a severely dysfunctional criminal family.

What’s Good: Although I’m a pretty big Bat-fan, Killer Croc has never really been my favorite villain (aside from his very cool appearance in the Arkham Asylum video game.) I don’t dislike him, mind, I guess I just prefer seeing Batman take on the slightly more humanoid side of his rogue’s gallery. (Of course, since Batman is only peripheral in this book anyway, that’s not really an issue.)

Speaking of human, though, that’s one thing this book does quite well: humanizing the monster that is Killer Croc. He’s still not as sympathetic as his Marvel counterpart, the Lizard, but this story goes a long way towards parting the curtain and letting us see a little bit of the man behind the beast. The whole “beauty and the beast” angle, while Raicht overplays it a bit for my taste, is still effective, and helps the story more than it hurts.

I particularly enjoyed the artwork in this book. It’s not overly photo referenced, but it doesn’t fall into the “cartoony” trap either; in other words, it fits my definition of a very well drawn comic. It’s not perfect—facial expressions get sloppy when they aren’t in the foreground, and the detailing of the scales on Croc’s skin tends to come and go—but overall, it’s very solid indeed.

Army of Darkness: Home Sweet Hell #12 – Review

By James Kuhoric, Mike Raicht, (writers) Pere Perez, (finished art) Ivan Nunes, (colors) Simon Bowland, (letters) Fabiano Neves, and Stjepan Sejic (covers)

Issue #11 for me was in many ways a dud. Whatever ailment Ash was going through that made him a sissy took away the entire appeal of the book. So why would I read #12? Curiosity I suppose, and as we all know, that killed the cat.

The good news is Ash starts to feel more like himself and embraces his role as the chosen one. The bad news is – well, everything else. Ash fighting something other than Deadites is fine, but what follows should be more than Hellraiser fan-fiction with bad jokes. Wrath asks, “How many souls can we tear apart tonight?” It comes across WAY too much like “We’ll tear your soul apart,” which is one of the most famous lines from Hellraiser. The line also loses all its punch coming from Wrath who looks and acts like a whiny little boy. It’s not threatening and not original. What’s worse is the dialogue between Ash and The Necronomicon. The Book of the Dead talks to, taunts, and cures Ash of his mental ailment. I can see what they were going for, but none of it really works.

For all of my harping on the writing, it’s still a very pretty book. Pere Perez’s style really fits the world of Army of Darkness. The origin of Pride, Envy, Greed, and Wrath are highlights in particular. With anywhere between two and four panels we get the life story of those four sins. The choice to give the book red eyes is another good move. I’m against the book having a consciousness and becoming Ash’s side-kick, but if it has to be done it might as well be able to emote and look menacing.

As an Evil Dead fan it’s hard to recommend this book. From a writing standpoint, it never feels Evil Dead-ish. It may look like it sometimes, use some of the same phrases, but it just isn’t. I doubt many fans will get into this book. There are just too many changes are made and none of them for the better. (Grade D-)

– Ben Berger

Army of Darkness: Home Sweet Hell #11 – Review

By James Kuhoric, Mike Raicht, (writers) Fernando Blanco, (layouts) Pere Perez, (finished art) Ivan Nunes, (colors) Simon Bowland, (letters) Fabiano Neves, and Stjepan Sejic (covers)

The chances of an Evil Dead 4 happening are comparable to winning the lottery. If it was going to happen it would have a long time ago. Moving the series away from film into games and comics is the next logical step to give fans their Ash fix. The question is, can there be an Evil Dead without Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi?

As a fan, this series falls flat for me. Army of Darkness is Bruce Campbell in many ways. It’s hard to convey his reactions and delivery through text, but it’s harder to do that without Ash in the story. Ash isn’t driving the action, which works occasionally, but here it misses the mark. James Kuhoric and Mike Raicht make the choice to pull Ash away from Deadites. The Necronomicon is part of the story, but the larger threat seems to be the seven deadly sins. The sins want to make Ash the new Sloth (for some reason). I’m also not sure why the Government is involved. It makes sense that they’d be aware of Deadites by now, but it feels too similar to Joss Whedon’s current run on Buffy.

The artwork isn’t bad, but it’s not really great either. My biggest complaint is the look of the sins. With the exception of Wrath, they’re total knockoffs of The Cenobites from Hellraiser. It’s not bad source material, but if you can look at Gluttony and not think of Butterball you’re kidding yourself. Blanco and Perez do an admirable job with the art other than that. The backgrounds (in the Hell House especially) are extremely rich and detailed. In fact, it reminds me of the mansion from the Gamecube version of Resident Evil.

I won’t say that this issue’s a total miss, but the humor, horror, and action all seem off. It doesn’t feel Evil Dead to me. I’m not asking for a remake, but there should be a larger connection to the source material than the title. None of the off-shoots of this series has made a slam dunk – look at the Evil Dead games. I liked them, but that was mostly Bruce’s delivery of the dialogue. It’s possible that Evil Dead can’t be great without Campbell and Raimi, but the potential is there. I think that’s why it’s such a bummer to see it miss. (Grade D+)

– Ben Berger