Friend and foe, both dangerous to be when it comes to Groo.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Evanier
Art: Sergio Aragones
What They Say:
As Groo wanders through twelve issues, he encounters his old friend/foe, the mercenary commander Taranto, who’s plotting to claim the vast riches that shall come to the father of the lost girl, Kayli. The intrigue unfolds in this story by the award-winning team of Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier, with lettering by Stan Sakai and coloring by Tom Luth!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As is often the case in the world of Groo, some of those that he encounters swing between being friend and foe – sometimes in the same breath. A lot of it comes down to the fact that Groo has a hard time really remembering things so it becomes easy to forget that someone has a grudge against you or that you’re a friend and ally to them. Or at least you were used by Groo. Therein often lies the fun in the series because with each person that we meet along the journey they can be both friend and foe – and likely have been to varying degrees over the years.
The tenth installment brings us closer to the end and this time around the focus is on the mercenary Taranto. He’s been around for some time and has had an on again off again relationship with Groo, though they tend to be more firmly entrenched as enemies than allies. What becomes fun with this one is that early on Groo gets sent to go after Taranto – at Rufferto’s urging – as Taranto and his crew are raiding a nearby village. Said villagers figure they’re screwed anyway so why not have Groo do some of the damage himself and potential beat down on Taranto some. Taranto, for his quick thinking, does his best to paint himself as a friend of Groo so he and his comrades can get out of town before he realizes it.
It’s pretty smart thinking, especially for Taranto, and it almost works. But like most of the villains in the franchise it’s his greed that does him in. While they’re getting ready to make some distance, the tale of Kayli comes to their ears – just as Kayli herself is walking by, all smiles. This makes for a great sequence overall as they try to win her over at first and then opt to go by force, only to have to deal with what she’s capable of. Kayli’s grown a good deal over the course of the series by interacting and watching many of those that Groo has dealt with and that’s given her some great survival skills to go along with the brains of it all.
In Summary:
Though Taranto has some good stories from the days of yore, he’s not the most compelling of opponents. That said, seeing him trying to work Groo the way he does here is certainly nicely played and he pretty much gets away with it. It’s good to see his undoing, which is also tying into the start of wrapping up Kayli’s storyline itself as well as we know exactly where it’s going to go and result in. But the Groo stories are almost always fun, light and silly in a great way that makes me smile. Aragones continues to push through some really great artwork with so many expressions, detailed characters and crowd scenes that just drives me nuts with how much there is to look at. The series is worth it for that alone, though of course Evanier provides some really great dialogue that simply clicks with this work like no other.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 21st, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
