Neozoic #5 (Red 5 – Ens / Korim / Lam)
Lilli is outside the city walls, at the mercy of a thousand dinosaurs relentlessly pursuing her and the child. In the aftermath of the attacks, the mysterious Talpid have taken over Monanti City and are enslaving its citizens. It is up to the remnant of the Predator Defense League to fight on, despite the loss of its greatest leaders.
Neozoic continues it’s adventuresome rampage, once again dominating the fantasy comic niche. As far as a stand alone issue, this one would not be the one to choose as an example, just because there is a lot of what might be called “story set-up” happening for the arc. Imagine just watching the first 45 minutes of The Empire Strikes Back and trying to base you feel for the Star Wars saga on that.
Once you understand and read this as an issue within an arc, that’s when this gets scrumptious. The Talpid have in one fail swoop come in and with the element of surprise taken over and concreted their hold on Monanti City with minimal casualties and as far as they are concerned have the situation well in hand. The hope of the people lie in the scattered soldiers who are trying to organize and figure out how to get their kingdom back. Well, I should say the majority of hope… there is still Lilli who assuredly will play some sort of messianic role in this to either drive out the Talpid or unite the two people in a yet un-forseen manner. You can’t have a heroic epic, without the unlikely hero 🙂 And I don’t use that word lightly, Neozoic is an epic story worthy of your time and readership.
Now, let’s just say though, that the best and most original fantasy plot of the last year isn’t enough to drive you enough to get this book… well then the art should! Like I said, issue #5 is a transition in action as far as story goes, but the gorgeous art of this series is constant. The standouts for me were some of the beautiful pages of outside the city. Now the scenes of the take-over and action inside is great too… Korim and Lam’s work gives a gorgeous balance of detail and clarity. But how they show Lilli and Pax struggle with the jungle environment outside the city and it’s inhabitants is just amazing. Some of these whole pages scenes are worthy of a coffee table book. If you have anyone in your life, or perhaps yourself, where fantasy is their preferred genre in comics, you cannot do better than Neozoic.
Issue Grade: A
Series Grade: A
