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It seems that, ever since the success of TV shows like Buffy the Vampire
Slayer and others, the idea of a character who exists only to kill monsters,
has become pretty popular. Naturally, this has spread to the world of
comics. The newest addition to this genre is Harvey Turnbolt: Monster
Slayer.
What we know:
Harvey Turnbolt is a young man who fights monsters. He has a partner, named
Jim. He uses strange, exotic weaponry. He works for General Boothe. Three
men, called "the Stans" act as both advance team and cleanup crew, they're
all named, "Stan," apparently and they all dress like members of
Marvel's super-science secret society A.I.M.
What we don't know:
Why does Harvey fight monsters? What branch of the government does General
Boothe answer to? Why does Jim get more tail than Harvey? Where are all
these monsters coming from?
When we first meet Harvey, he's dressed in what appears to be his "fighting
togs," fighting a re-animated triceratops. How it became re-animated is left
unexplained, for now.
In the streets of a small town, somewhere in the U.S., Harvey Turnbolt
finally manages to kill the rampaging beast, but not without injury to
himself. There are consequences to fighting with monsters.
Harvey's partner, Jim, is late in arriving on the scene. A hot date,
apparently. A man must have his priorities.
On a technical note, there is more energy and talent evident, than there is
skill. That's okay, skill is learned. The art is crude, but consistent. The pages are laid out in
an interesting manner and the use of dramatic camera angles shows a level of accomplishment that is
unusual in artists' earliest work. The writing is adequate to reveal the characters, through
dialogue and the ending was both shocking and a surprise.
When it comes down to the wire, what we really need for a first issue is to
introduce the characters, situations, and motivations. Characters and
situations are revealed in a kind of snapshot fashion, amid the action.
Motivations are left a bit nebulous, at the moment. There is also a setup
for future complications, between Harvey and a girl named Laura, who can barely
be bothered to remember his name. The framework is in place for good
character development and I will certainly be looking forward to Harvey's
origin in #2.
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