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Elephantmen #42: Advance Comic Book Review

 

Elephantmen 42Elephantmen is the best book you aren’t reading right now. That’s a real shame, because everybody should be reading it. Sure, it’s a weird, high concept book filled with sex and violence, but when you pull back those layers, it’s a really wonderful, emotional story about flawed people trying to do their best. That’s where its genius lies, because when you get really into the story, you forget that you’re looking at a 12-foot tall elephant/man hybrid, and you just feel for this person. The empathy that Richard Starkings has infused his book with makes Elephantmen so much more than what its cover suggests.

The other cool part is that, oh yeah, there are 12-foot tall Elephantmen! The concept of this book is really cool. The story goes that there was a big war, and a corporation created these animal/man hybrids to help win the war. Now that the war is over, the government has to find something to do with these giant killing machines. Some people see them as dangerous beasts that should be locked up, but as we quickly come to learn, these creatures are much more human than we realize. The Elephantmen are much like the veterans we see everyday in real life. Some have PTSD or other emotional trauma, some have trouble finding jobs, and almost all of them are tortured by questions of why they exist and what their role should be.

What really sells the emotion in this book is the art. The Elephantmen, despite being so non-human, are given very human body language and very expressive eyes. So, no matter what is going on, you always know how the characters feel. There is sadness in their eyes, and the artist captures it perfectly. In this issue they even played around with having a repeating image of the women who have carried Elephantmen children. They purposely chose to repeat the shot over and over again, forcing the reader to confront the image rather ignore it. It was a wonderful storytelling technique.

Elephantmen #42 is a good jumping-on point for the next arc, and if you like it, Elephantmen is collected in a series of trade paperbacks that are packed with content and very reasonably priced. Pick up this awesome series, and, even better, add the future issues to your pull list.

 

Jason Enright, Fanbase Press Senior Contributor

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  Favorite Superhero: Cyclops Favorite Animal: Anklyosaurus Favorite Game: Pathfinder RPG

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