Never get between a girl and her man … or you’ll regret it.
Creative Staff:
Writer: Troy Brownfield
Artwork: Babisu Kourtis
Colors: Robby Bevard
Letters: Fabio Amelia
What They Say:
Cadaver Arm – When a group of sorority girls take a hazing stunt to far a pledge ends up dead. Claiming it was an accident the sisters escape punishment from the law but there was one thing they didn’t count on…the pledge taking revenge from beyond the grave.
Content (please note that portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Wandrei College seems like your normal academy of higher learning, except this school has the sorority of Delta Alpha Kappa. They are a loyal sisterhood who have a Code which is beyond reproach, until one of their own decides to violate that trust by dating another’s boyfriend. When Riley heard Jerry was going out with her supposed friend Julie, she immediately shut herself in her room and refused to come out. As the group finally decided to air things out, the former sweetheart gave a half hearted apology and asked not to make things worse by discussing it. However when Riley states that maybe she should forgive him, the other girls vehemently reject the idea. It is then when Chip comes with an idea that requires a late night trip to the campus’ Gross Anatomy morgue.
After they finish their ghastly deed, the boys come back and spend the night, only to be awoken by a blood curdling scream from Natalie. As the group attempts to find out what happened, they come upon a horrendous scene: the ex-girlfriend Julie has been strangled and next to her is the severed remains of a human arm. In an absolute panic, the teens once again gather and try to figure out what to do next – they can’t call the police since they will assume that one of them killed her and if even they did that, the press would have a field day with this new scandal. With everyone too self absorbed about their own futures, Chip calmly states that he would take care of the body. Dragging a lifeless corpse into the woods, the sedate prankster proceeds to dispose of their late friend … with an axe. However, will this be the end of their problems, or just the beginning?
In Summary:
When I began reading this issue’s story, I sincerely hoped that it would be better than how it started: a tale fueled by teenage hormones and shallow concerns about their own futures. But unfortunately, writer Troy Brownfield, I am sorry to say, fell into the obvious and stereotypical horror genre of the Nineties Slasher film trap; I remember watching those clichéd movies during summer matinees with names like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream, but Brownfield also tried combined them with pictures from the past such as And Now the Screaming Starts and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors. Sadly however, when you hear the title Cadaver Arm, the only remembrance that immediately comes up was a twisted version of that friendly helper from The Addams’ Family and the legend of the Monkey’s Paw. While the endeavor was clever, the execution did not successfully translate to the page with a static medium like the graphic novel. Unfortunately, the psychological tension you can set up in a movie is replaced by predictable stop motion scenes which forces you to jump to a final conclusion. While the idea was sound, the method of communication is what failed in the end.
The other reason why this issue gave me that Slasher film feel was thanks to Babisu Kourtis’s artwork of the college crowd, just asking for trouble. Girls with micro shorts and tight tops, bad attitude boyfriend and his go along for anything friends propagate those teen thriller plot settings. While the illustrations were appropriate for the genre with vapid characters who seem so out of their elements that you can almost hear the audience yelling for them to stop at pertinent moments, at the same time, you might feel sorry for them if it wasn’t for their hollow choices. Then we add Robby Bevard’s palette of colors to turn up the tension in all the right places, emphasizing the areas in which music would play the part of warning us when something will happen, but Bevard’s method is much more effective. This combination of art and coloring gives us a story which is predictable due to the tonal changes and grimly rewarding in seeing foolish choices compensated to those who are selfish enough to garner them.
The teen thriller is a cheap way to get a good scare, but I don’t think it is appropriate for Grimm Tales of Terror unless you incorporate some kind of urban tale into the mixture. The movie genre is too predictable, thus spoiling any anticipatory moments in which you can sneak in a surprise. And with the way this story is heading down the wrong path, I don’t think there will be a sequel.
Grade: C+
Rating: M (Mature)
Released By: Zenescope
Release Date: March 8th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99