Comics
Review: ‘X’ #4
Shotgun blasts for everyone in “X” #4. Things get dirtier and nastier for our anti-hero trying to clean up the city of Arcadia in the most blood-splattered ways possible. Nothing is clean, sacred or safe in this town. X is irritating everything corrupt is ultra-violent fashion without consideration for his or anyone else’s safety.
WRITTEN BY: Duane Swierczyski
ART BY: Eric Nguyen
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: 14 August 2013
I honestly would not be surprised at all if they do an all-red issue in the future. There is so much spilt blood and body parts flying in this issue I half-thought it was a zombie story. Sadly for the inhabitants of this tale, these people have turned themselves into monsters with no viral infection as an excuse to be found anywhere. The horror of people’s base nature is profiled in writer Duane Swierczyski’s coda for X’s first act of vigilante terrorism. Natives of this town seem capable of doing anything in order to survive, no matter how filthy it may be.
I have never heard of a villain who you could literally punch in the face forever since he can’t feel it. The fact that his skin is grafted from pigs is a not-so-subtle nod to show how ugly Berkshire is on the inside and on the outside. This is a horror film with vigilantes mixed in to give readers a bracing new story. Absolutely every character gets theirs hands, mouths, and everything else dirty here.
Is there a horror channel out there that could adapt this? I don’t know as I only get two English channels here in South Korea. This issue screamed zombie-gore, but no undead were anywhere to be found. It’s fascinating to see uninfected people can be as gruesome as flesh-eating monsters. There’s more mysteries to be explored in Arcadia and how X plans to exact justice. Now that I think of it, this story IS already on TV in a PG-friendly version: the CW’s Arrow. Only this crusader is rated a hard R. Duane Swierczyski and Eric Nguyen are keeping me distressingly compelled to see where they’re going next.
4/5 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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