So anyway. My editor was all, “Hey, Simply Jack. You should totally review Age of Darkness #1 and 2,” and I was all, “Nah.” And, she was all, “But it’s co-written and illustrated by Joanna Estep. She’s a big up and comer who just graduated but still managed to do Tokyo’s Pop Road – which is cool.” And, I was all, “Busy, no.” And, she was all, “It’s got zombies.”
And now, I’m reviewing the two comics. They’re actually one, as they come in this cool issue #1 and issue omnibus, so one fewer trip to the comic book store on this, fearless reader. As my editor already told you, this appears to be Joanna Estep’s brainchild, as she co-writes (with Don McLiam) and co-illustrates (with Leonardo Colapietro) the books. This is a pretty hardcore chick. I went overboard on research and went to Wikipedia (which is a lot if you’re me), and she not only has a page (epic!), but it’s impressive. She is “a recent graduate with degrees in Graphic Design and Japanese” (‘cause Japanese, that’s why), so she’s all smart and talented. Plus, she’s done Tokyo’s Pop Road, which is awesome. She’s on her way to Ron Burgundy-esque “kind of a big deal,” And now, you know that.
Age of Darkness is a zombie flick of a comic. Post apocalyptic, survivors, struggle with hopelessness, blah, blah, blah, sequel, blah, blah. But wait, the creators totally have a different spin. And, it’s kind of awesome. You know how you watch UFC to see people kick a–? You know how you (guiltily) like the first 2.5 Resident Evil’s (movie) primarily because Mila kicks a–? You know how that YouTube video of the bus driver decking the fat girl is awesome, because he kicks a–? You get it. Anyway, the survivors in this comic? Yep. They kick a–.
Superiorly (that is now a word) armed, the good guys are looking to make contact with other groups. Superiorly trained (See?), they mow down zombies the way I can plow the Pringles. (It’s impressive.) Superiorly (This is the last one.), they’ve got brains in the way of a small, stereotypical hacker man who is like all Bill Gates on tech – but smaller, oddly enough. These guys may have made contact with a repeating radio signal to go somewhere – and they go. And, I don’t spoil stories, so I’m done.
But, yes, based on the theme of this review, you can assume they kick a–. It’s good. Why? Because it’s a bit Running Man (the movie, where he kicks a–) meets The Walking Dead (the comic, which didn’t suck like the show) meets Resident Evil (because zombies are boring and this has demony things, too). Those three paradigm-shifting works of art rarely meet, but they do here. And, that’s why you’ll buy it.
Good talk. Go.
