This week, comic legends James Robinson and Jesus Merino launch their new series for Dark Horse Comics, Los Monstruos. Any new project by James Robinson is an instant add to my pull list.
His seminal run on Starman for DC Comics was a game-changer for the comics industry and was a major influence on me to pursue a career in writing. Jesus Merino has worked on Superman, Action Comics, and the Justice Society of America, as well as inking one of my all-time favorite mini-series, Avengers Forever. Merino also provides the cover art for this issue, which expertly highlights our two main characters of the series, Private Investigator Perry Cutter and the city of Los Monstruos itself. One aspect of Robinson’s writing I’ve always admired is his ability to make the setting of the story feel like a living member of the cast. Like Opal City, Robinson introduces us to a Los Monstruos that feels lived in and full of history and personality. Merino’s art presents a city that shows its age but is full of life. I’ve never seen so many different and striking character designs jammed into one comic.
All of this work is necessary to make Los Monstruos – the city of monsters – feel genuine and dangerous. Los Monstruos was created as an independent haven for monster-kind. Visitation by humans from the outside world is severely curtailed and apparently rare. Within this bustling city sits former police-officer-turned-private investigator Perry Cutter, part Humphrey Bogart and all werewolf. Yes, this is a neo-noir mystery book to its core. You can almost hear the old orchestral scores of classic movies playing in your head as you read the seasoned P.I.’s narration.
Cutter’s current case begins with a visit from an old and desperate human who wants to reconnect with his long-lost love, a vampire living somewhere in the city. Robinson sets up the case fairly late in the issue, but he and Merino provide a heavy amount of world-building in these pages. I don’t want to spoil any of it here, but we are given a glimpse into Cutter’s complicated past in the police department, as well as some of this new comic world’s history, such as the founding of Los Monstruos.
There is definitely a strong Mark Buckingham Fables vibe given the wolfman private eye and the supernatural setting, yet Los Monstruos successfully carves out its own identity. Los Monstruos is firmly rooted in our world, telling a story that would be at home in 1940s Los Angeles. For reasons not fully revealed in the issue, the monster inhabitants of Los Monstruos are kept strictly separate from the humans. This forced segregation and victimization of the other has many parallels in our own world further cementing the realism of the narrative. I hope Robinson and Merino will expand on this metaphor more in further issues, as it lends extra dramatic weight just below the surface of Cutter’s investigation.
Overall, this is an impressive start to a new series. Robinson and Merino have given readers a fresh, new world to explore, and I highly recommend you pick it up.
Creative Team: James Robinson (Writer), Jesus Merino (Artist), K.J. Diaz (Colorist), Jim Campbell (Letterer)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
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