Let’s be honest, folks who read this book are doing it for
one of three reasons. I’ll tackle those reasons as my review.
1 - Shanna the She-Devil – it is no secret that Frank Cho
draws spectacular comic book women. So Shanna looks tremendous. You can almost
play a game as you read the comic: spot the places where the inker or colorist
had to draw panties on Shanna! I will say that he writes Shanna as a supremely
confident and capable heroine. I’m curious if the power upgrade he gives her
will stick or not; it would be fun to read about a super-strong, super-fast
jungle woman in the Marvel U.
2 – Monsters and Monkeys – Cho also excels at drawing
monsters, dinosaurs, and gorillas. He gets to do all of that here too. I guess
when you are the writer; you can make sure that the same story that had
raptors, T-rexes, cavemen, and fish-people also has super-strong, mystic
gorillas and Lovecraftian (almost Prometheus-looking) space gods. Fans who come
to this story looking for bloody action will be satisfied.
3 – Marvel U fans – Maybe you are the type that just wants
to see Frank Cho draw icons on the Marvel U. He doesn’t have a huge cast, but
he does have Wolverine, Hulk, Shanna, and at least one Celestial. He also
spends a lot of time with Amadeus Cho. I’m not sure I remember Cho having all
the powers he exhibits here, and he is a lot “prettier” and heroic than I
remember, but I think that is what you get when Frank Cho draws a book. He did
well choosing Shanna and Wolverine as his leads. His dialogue and banter
between the two of them is very well done, especially considering how often he
lets Shanna come out on the better end of the conversation. Wolverine seems a
bit overmatched by the jungle heroine.
So the plot is fine, it moves the story along. Wolverine and
Shanna get to meet up and either fight or team-up with a lot of interesting-looking
foils. Folks should read this book for the art and to find a crowd-pleasing
high adventure. This is not a character-examination or high drama. This is a
FAIR comic where the writer/artist knows exactly what he set out to do, and he
does it.
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