Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Mars Attacks #4
IDW Comics
Layman, McCrea & Elder
Mars Attacks keeps right on rolling with yet another fun, gory and highly entertaining issue. Layman continues to build a wide, but very focused universe. This particular issue introduces a couple of other characters much in the same way Layman rolled out the flea circus guy last issue. It's a grass roots way to build up the characters, the story and the universe as a whole while still telling a self-contained and satisfying story.
The plot is straight forward enough: prisoners revolt. As it turns out the Martians have been visiting Earth for quite some time. Many times they just curiously observe the humans while other times it seems they have more sinister ideas in the heads. As luck would have it, they always to find some very belligerent humans that usually leads to bloody results.
The Martians round up some of the characters from various time periods. They seem to put them in some sort of stasis and wake them up during their invasion of Earth to test out ways to kill them it seems. Two particular characters find a way to communicate with each other, despite one being a Native America from some five centuries ago and the other from the American Civil War, and work as a team to overtake their captors. The book ends with a nice dovetail with the previous two issues after a bloody conflict.
The book is constructed masterfully. Layman knows exactly how to roll up a bunch of scenes in a logical, humorous and concise way. However, Layman reminds the reader often that this is a horror book of sorts. Watching humans getting crunched up reveals the twisted side of the Martians, but the brutality of the humans towards the Martians illustrates how primal man has been through the ages. It's all very good stuff and it keeps the reader on their toes.
The book's art is tremendous. McCrea continues to reinvent himself with this series. He has a knack for portraying scenes to really highlight the emotions that the reader should be feeling from the story. His art doesn't shy away from the violence, which helps to keep the reader from smiling the entire way through the book.
Mars Attacks seems like it's a select genre. This is a mistake to think this though. This book is about characters, survival and man's struggle to get along in the face of a global invasion. Layman is telling an excellent story here that looks like it will have arms and legs for quite some time to come. This is a series to jump on now before it takes off and never looks back. I highly recommend picking this up.
4 out of 5 geek goggles
