Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Elephantmen #23Elephantmen #23
Image Comics
Starkings, Moritat, Wright & Burnham

Elephantmen wraps up the Dangerous Liaisons series of stories, but leaves off with a cliffhanger for the next group of stories. This issue really brings the overall story of the Elephantmen to another level as the Elephantmen are dragged further back into their old conditioning. On a smaller scale this issue resolves the sub plot of Vanity Case and her new found friend, Simm, moving in on Horn’s operations in his own home turf. The story packs a punch to the smaller plot’s conclusion and packs a bigger one with opening up the big can of worms at the end of the issue. This was a fun comic.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsSimm convinces Vanity to use her credentials to get them past security into the Horn’s building. Simm has his own agenda that is completely unknown to Vanity. All that Vanity knows is that he is trying to expose the wrong doing that Horn is committing to his own people, the Elephantmen, and that Vanity has a little bit of a crush on Simm. Before Simm can truly reveal his intentions to Horn’s cronies, something very unexpected happens and the timing doesn’t bode well for Vanity or Simm. The epilogue of the issue has a very interesting directional change for one of them.

As Vanity and Simm get themselves into trouble there is another plot that really rips the lid off this comic series. A fire at the cab’s garage sends Miki, Ebony and Hip in to check it out. While there they realize it wasn’t just a random fire and something happens to one of them that is bound to have a big impact on the series in the short and long term.

The comic book really builds up the tension bringing the issue to a dramatic and stunning conclusion on two separate fronts. This is the type of storytelling that you expect from this comic book, but is not something to brush off as easy to achieve. Because the universe is so tightly constructed all of the characters have the ability to shift the series with events that happen to them as well as the relationships they hold. It’s really an incredible universe.

The art goes for more of a heavy line look with some brighter coloring. It works well because this isn’t the darkest of the dark issues in the beginning. This helps add some drama as we get jolted by the surprise ending. I liked the art a lot in this issue as it handles the large cast and setting changes very well. It doesn’t hurt to have both Miki and Vanity in the same issue either.

Another stellar effort for the Elephantmen this month. If you pick up this issue I don’t know how you could not continue based on the cliffhangers contained in this bad boy. The comic book is about to get really crazy and that’s a good thing.

4 out of 5 Geek Goggles