Having agreed to work with the police, Cyberface enjoys total amnesty. Sharona Jackson (Rapture) made a big cleaning his apartment and invested in a bed with water mattress what intrigues strongly Horridus. Savage Dragon is in the process of fighting against Carnage (not a big bad beautiful violet skin) with the help of Raphaelo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Antonio Seghetti (Overlord) is buried in peace. But the death of Overlord leaves a gap in the chain of command of organized crime, and soon several contenders will try to win, sparking bloody clashes several casualties among civilians. The Fiend managed to hurt Savage Dragon and send it to the hospital. Amy Blecher tries to take the opportunity to take the place of Dragon in the Chicago police. The mystery of the Star of identity is finally revealed, while Peter Klaptin makes gringue Amanda Mills. Finally Johnny Redbeard reappeared.
Logically, after the disappearance of Overlord, Erik Larsen addresses the issue of succession (nature abhors a vacuum) as main plot. He does not forget its subplots, always so many entertaining, whether it's secret identity Star, or vengeance of The Fiend / Bonnie Harris against Savage Dragon. He continues to develop relations between the characters, beginning with uniting Savage Dragon and Sharona Jackson, but also between Dragon and Alex Wilde, plus the pervasive recognition of Amanda Mills. Readers welcomes back the colorful characters of a time sequence: Johnny course Redbeard (a parody of John Byrne takes more consistency) or Burt West (Mace, a parody of the Punisher in his expeditious methods), or yet the endearing Mighty Man (his good humor and his desire to do well). What is significant is that Larsen is not resting on its laurels and he made the effort to move forward. For example, it does not just reused the gag on the inner voice of She-Dragon, he develops his personality, and shows how his troubled personality dessert, without humiliating, by preserving very human. Larsen reveals great ability to convey the humanity of his characters flawed, but sparking a strong empathy.
One of the difficulties that Larsen has to overcome due to the very nature of his comics. He chose to tell a superhero story, using all the conventions of the genre, both using the first degree, both by exaggerating to induce a form of derision that mocks these conventions, while having conscience to use, creating a curveball in which Larsen mocks himself in a tasty form of self-mockery. The player supports such awareness that Savage Dragon is seriously injured regularly and it ends at the hospital once a tome. To avoid repetition, Larsen must find new forms of injury, always more inventive. Thus Savage Dragon had finished impaled in Volume 3. Here, Larsen imagine corporal punishment which leads to that all bones are broken Dragon and they ressoudent (through its accelerated healing abilities) of anarchically. This renews the nature of injuries, but also lead to bulk Dragon drawings situation both horrible and steeped in black humor.
Throughout these five episodes, the reader can admire the exceptional complementarity Erik Larsen writer and cartoonist Erik Larsen. It combines first person as descriptive level making credible and threatening four anthropomorphic turtles, with a nice mockery of the adult who outraged conscience of what he represents (2 turtles making a grimace impossible by becoming aware of the height the fall that awaits them). He masters the visual conventions of superhero comics, and he makes the most. Among the contenders for the succession of Overlord is Brainiape, a gifted gorilla conscience and speech, the top of the skull is replaced by a glass dome, revealing his brain. The reader immediately recognizes a parody of Flash supercriminel or Doom Patrol, with an appearance inherited from the 1950s Brainiape While trying to establish itself as the new head of the underworld, another supercriminel noted that with this appearance, it will never be accepted by humans, a mockery of the character's appearance. Larsen dose carefully its visual quotes, and with great intelligence (eg the reader finds the total relevance of Amanda Mills resemblance to Mary Jane Watson).
Larsen also knows how to compose pages of a rare dramatic intensity, such as those where Mighty Man finds himself forced to perform a dirty bloody work. You have to see the intensity of the gaze of Mace to believe it, and you just have to see to understand that there longer than is normal in his head. Finally he shows unbridled inventiveness which imposes, as it does not fit less than 180 different characters (all named in this volume or other) in 5 episodes.
With this sixth volume, Erik Larsen continues to delight and impress the readers. He built his story on a solid frame, developing subplots spun episode to episode. It manages a bloated cast of characters, all with features that make them immediately identifiable. There is renewed in the use of the superhero genre conventions by introducing significant and inventive variations. He neglects neither the characters nor their interactions or the action scenes or the moments of shock or humorous breaths. The title of the next tome promises a confrontation on a scale unparalleled: A talk with God (episodes 27-33).
