Weird Worlds #1 – Review

By Kevin VanHook (1^st feature writer), Jerry Oroway (1^st feature artist), Pete Pantazis (1^st feature colorist), Aaron Lopresti (2^nd feature writer/penciller), Matt Ryan (2^nd feature inker), Dave McCaig (2^nd feature colorist), Kevin Maguire (3^rd feature writer/artist), Rosemary Cheetham (3^rd feature colorist)

The Story: In the first feature, Lobo once again rises from the dead to prove how badass he is.  In the second, Garbage Man’s origins prove he’s definitely no Captain America in the super-soldier department.  In the third, Tanga, the bubbly purple alien, seeks to discover if true companionship exists in this great wide universe.

The Review: Weird Worlds is an interesting bag in the world of comics.  It brings to mind the annual format in its use of multiple short features.  It also bears traces of DC’s experiment with Wednesday Comics, since its features aren’t self-contained, but continue their stories from month to month (at least until the miniseries’ sixth, and last, issue).  Weird Worlds faces the obstacle of generating enough activity in each of its story chunks to keep the readers interested, but the efforts so far have a lot of potential.

The weakest feature stars the biggest-name character, sadly enough.  Lobo as an over-the-top caricature of Wolverine got him some inexplicable popularity in the nineties.  Post new millennium, his appearances have been restricted to guest shots in DC’s space titles, which is for the best, I have to say.  What else can you do other than riddle him with a multitude of gaping holes which no one should be able to survive, but which he inevitably always does?  Then he rains some major-league fragging on his opponents, touched by some always charming trash talk, and that’s about it.  Unless Kevin VanHook can give him a serious challenge in upcoming issues, you’re bound to get more of what you expect from Lobo, and not much else.  Jerry Oroway supports the feature with some appropriately gory art and packed action, but there’s nothing here to especially praise.

The tale of Garbage Man’s origins sells a lot better, and most of that is due to Aaron Lopresti’s storytelling choices.  Instead of forcing his characters to talk about what’s happened, he uses a flashback of events to fill you in.  Lopresti also uses some very bold dialogue to give personality to his characters, especially the flippantly amoral Doctor Clive.  Garbage Man’s voice reeks of the eighties style of stating the obvious (“Did that guy just run me over with his car?  I hardly felt anything.  It’s just not possible.”), but it works here, since the character pays tribute to that era’s horror tales, particularly Alan Moore’s work on Swamp Thing.  Lopresti’s own art is a huge boon to the feature’s value; his lines are clean and detailed and his paneling paces his storytelling perfectly.  Matt Ryan’s inks add depth, but never muddy Lopresti’s pencils, while Dave McCaig’s colors make lively scenes pop and moody scenes subdued.