Kevin’s path becomes tighter and more dangerous.
Creative Staff:
Story: B. Clay Moore
Art: Clayton Henry, Lewis Larosa
Colors: Brian Reber
Letterer: Dave Lanphear of A Larger World
What They Say:
Learning to claw! On a mysterious island seemingly untouched by time, order is about to give way to instinct. Stranded with no hope of rescue, the Sauvage family must sacrifice the people they once were?and embrace the animals within! But as prehistoric monsters stalk them at every turn, will their newfound bestialness be enough to ensure survival, or will they be forever trapped at the bottom of the food chain? And when tragedy befalls the once close-knit family, will their last tether to humanity be severed once and for all?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Savage has definitely been one of those series that’s like a little hidden gem, filled with a lot of passion that didn’t seem to get a lot of promotion before it began. The first two issues have given us an intriguing little island world where we saw Kevin and his parents crash and deal with the problems of survival, especially when his father is killed early on and Veronica really steps up to protect Kevin. Moore, Henry, and Larosa have delivered a great looking book that capitalizes on the designs an island offers but also that of the dinosaurs all while making sure to draw us in with the visual and expressiveness of the characters in past and present form as they’re definitely quite different.
This installment whittles away a bit more at Kevin’s life in the early days as he and his mother continue to explore the island, particularly as they’ve come across some other people on the island. That means little to Kevin in a way but Veronica knows there’s something dangerous about them. That’s reinforced when they find the camp and there’s some sort of totem that has a flash of energy contained within it at the top. It’s here that we get an understanding of how the plane crashed here as it’s a portal of some sort, which we get exposed to with a motorcyclist coming flying through and all confused. The men on this side of the portal are all aggressive to be sure, brutally murdering him for what he has with him, but there are no answers here. Only danger, which Veronica does her best to shield Kevin from but is unable to hide completely, resulting in a casual yet brutal death for her as he flees.
The present day material is built on this well as Kevin has gone totally savage as we know, but with the humanity and knowledge he got from his mother there as well. He’s survived all this time well – as have the men – but he’s become a skilled hunter whereas some of them are just getting by. We see an early encounter with one of the men and some dinosaurs that leads to Kevin staking out his intent to deal with them over the death of his mother some years prior and that’s essentially a call to war between the two sides. It’s building well, even if it does feel somewhat abrupt in a sense considering the short run of the series as they could have expanded on the origin side a lot more, but the tone is well set and what we see of the portal and what it represents is intriguing and leaves me wanting to know a whole lot more.
In Summary:
With another piece of Kevin’s life torn away from him here, the book is becoming more focused on him as the island and life here has definitely molded him well. His mother has given him the tools he needs to survive and he’s gained some solid cunning as a boy growing up here. The mix of past and present is well done and Moore keeps the book moving and interesting the whole way through. Henry and Larosa definitely take it up several steps with the quality of the artwork and the passion that comes from it and that makes the whole thing just a thoroughly engaging trip worth taking a few times in order to soak up all the details. This series has been an absolute blast to read and I’m curious as to what the long term plans are for it while simply enjoying what’s in the here and now.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: January 25th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
