Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Elephantmen #24Elephantmen #24
Image Comics
Starkings, Moritat & Cook

Elephantmen returns after a couple of months absence and wastes no time ramping the story up. The issue pits Ebony versus Hip. However, Hip has an advantage as he is under the influence of a device that doesn't exactly keep him in his rehabilitated state. The real question was whether or not Ebony would fight back and at what point would Ebony revert to more animal instincts. The issue deals with these questions and much more as Elephantmen shows why it's the king of science fiction.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe comic starts with the battle and its not just action packed, but information packed. The first few pages manage to describe in great detail many of the various tricks that Mappo used to make the Elephantmen into the perfect soldiers. As the story takes shape we learn and understand why the Elephantmen were kept around after the war and, more importantly, that some, but not all, of the Elephantmen underwent procedures to surgical remove devices in their brains. This is all good stuff and will ultimately prove important to the storyline.

While this is taking place, Sahara and Horn deal with the special package of the head of Tusk showing up at their house. Not only does this keep these characters in the foreground, but it also reminds the reader that there are other Elephantmen out there with varying degrees of success both as soldiers and as civilians.

This issue serves as an amazing jump on point. You basically have the main cast playing various roles in this comic book. It's got plenty of action to keep the reader engaged and it manages to pack in much of the back story about how and why the Elephantmen were created and subsequently kept around.

Moritat returns for this issue and the artwork doesn't skip a beat. One thing this series has proven is that a rotation of artists can work without losing consistency. This particular issue conveys some excellent emotions from the painful existence of the Elephantmen. There are a couple of splash pages in here to keep the art showing off the story, but it steals some of the emotionally crushing scenes that deal with death at the end of the story. Elephantmen seems to be a perfect match with Moritat.

Another incredible issue of Elephantmen officially begins the next big arc. This issue is definitely a great jump on point for the new or returning reader. There is no question that this is the new science fiction benchmark that I measure all others against. And not to be missed is another backup story about Brickman (oh yes, Brickman). This arc feels like its going to be a game-changer and I'm extremely anxious to get on the Starkings-crazy train. I definitely recommend this issue, this series and any Elephantmen paraphernalia you can get your hands on.

4 out of 5 Geek Goggles