Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Lord Of The Jungle #1
Dynamite Entertainment
Nelson & Castro
Dynamite is taking a shot at retelling Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan story by offering up an introductory full-length issue for only a dollar. This issue moves quickly and gets the story off the ground enough that the basic setup is complete by the issue's end. The artwork is good but fails in one very key scene. Overall, I think there is enough here to entice a reader to come back for more.
Nelson hits all the right notes in the opening issue. He introduces John and Alice (Tarzan's parents) and provides a decent mystery as to why they were exiled on the African coast. The issue also introduces the apes and the natives that will presumably rival the apes and future English residents, such as Jane. The book even gets Tarzan into the hands of the apes. This is where the problem with the issue arises.
The book's concept is that the apes, presumably Kala and Kerchak, lose their off-spring and replace what they have lost with the infant Tarzan. However, the panels where the baby-ape dies are completely unclear to me. It seems like Kala has the baby on her back and it falls off and dies. It then appears that Kerchak smashes the baby. Was the baby already dead? Upon closer inspection it appears that a gorilla (possibly Kerchak) scares or chases Kala and this is why the baby falls off her back. Without dialogue the issue needs the artwork to be absolutely explicit and too much was left open for interpretation.
However, Castro's art is near flawless throughout the rest of the issue. Some of the more breathtaking panels ranged from tenderness, such as the love between John and Alice, to bloodshed, such as the native's slaughter. This issue tells a fabulous story and if this is the only Tarzan book that you pick up I think you will be very satisfied with the visual story.
Tarzan is a genre that I wouldn't think would be all that entertaining in comics because of the lack of verbal communication. However, this book really shakes away a lot of the apprehension. Nelson and Castro managed to change my views about the book's possibilities and when you factor in that I only picked up the book because it was a buck means this issue is a success. This is definitely worth checking out.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
