Comics
Review: ‘Colonized’ #4
Aliens screw up just like we do. “Colonized” #4 is the latest example of how one alien named Beemis, who inadvertently destroyed an isolated community, tries his best to save what’s left of Carbon Falls. Is it truly better late than never?
WRITTEN BY: Chris Ryall
ART BY: Drew Moss
PUBLISHER: IDW Publishing
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: July 17th, 2013
Aliens accidentally reanimated the dead everything in this small town. Now the last of them tries to end it with taser sticks, anti-gravity suits, flying saucers and crash landings. If that sounds mashed together, welcome to the finale of this miniseries. Writer Chris Ryall tries his level best to make all of the disparate elements from the premise – aliens, zombies, militiamen – all relevant in its conclusion. Sadly, it feels very uneven in the end. Thrown in for good measure is a random ATF agent, dynamite trains, and zombies recalling their lives after eating aliens. Like I said, there’s a lot of ingredients thrown into this creative blender and the story is a mixed bag.
The art by Drew Moss is the life saver of the series. It’s beautifully disgusting and a fresh set of eyes on how zombies look, decompose and bite. The coloring by Jay Fotos really compliments all the different environs showcased in this issue too. The colors are vibrant when they need to be and the darks and blackness are highly effective. I’d like to see this art team tackle something else just to see what they’d come up with.
Overall, this series offers a solid concept, but sadly it lacks in execution. Maybe I had higher expectations from the idea of “Colonized”. Maybe my ideas were just way different than the creators. It’s a good try and so I hope these creators can progress upward from what they’ve learned from making this series.
2.5/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – Your Friendly Neighborhood Brady
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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