Giants, Loli-goths and monster trucks, Oh my.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Yasuhiro Nightow
Translation/Adaptation: Matthew Johnson
What They Say
Traffic in New York has never been a picnic, but with the Big Apple destroyed and rebuilt as the dimensional-gate madhouse known as Jerusalem’s Lot, gridlock is a little more complicated. When the city’s forty million jailed paranormal criminals are about to be set loose by a monster truck – literally, a monster truck – the superagents of Libra may have to contend with a rush hour of apocalyptic proportions!
Content: (please note that content portions of review may contain spoilers):
The city of Jerusalem’s Lot is possibly the most dangerous city in the world as trouble doesn’t just lurk behind every corner it often sets up shop on the corner and promotes itself with a large neon sign and every day brings new perils to those who would live there as death can fall swiftly upon its citizens through either the most simple of acts by its largest members or through the actions of those who have put a great deal of effort into their malicious plans and the members of Libra are far from immune.
The first story in the volume takes place on a day that begins auspiciously for Leonard as he finds himself running from a massive individual moving through the streets not paying a good deal of attention to where his feet are landing as his head is in the clouds- literally in this case as the enormous being dwarfs even some of the city’s tallest skyscrapers- and though Leo avoids the immediate threat his accidental encounter with a visiting tough guy will leave him far poorer for the day both in wealth and feelings of kinship with one of his erstwhile allies. In the meantime Stephan is planning a major soiree at his apartment but his evening may not go as planned despite all his preparations while Zap will discover that little is more dangerous to his manhood as an agitated and magically endowed working girl who happens to have a few issues with assigning blame and responsibility. The night may be young but there is no guarantying that any of the three will be making it through the alive…at least, maybe not whole.
And if coincidence and planning doesn’t finish off some members of Libra pure malevolence and twisted love may do the trick for the lot of them along with the entire city as the asylum Pandorum that holds 40 million souls that are too extreme and weird to be let out even by Jerusalem’s Lot’s standards is about to come under assault by a monster truck which has been eating other vehicles and people and growing stronger with each morsel consumed. In order to stop it Libra is going to have to use the best tool for the job- unfortunately that tool happens to be an inmate of the same asylum and one of its worst residents just for good measure and at the same time is also one of Libra’s own members. As the situation grows dim, particularly for one unlucky member of Libra, will a carefully crafted and detailed plan win the day or is planning overrated and perhaps the solution will be far more simple and gutsy, if not more than somewhat stupid?
With the previous volume having left off with the introduction of what will likely be a major enemy for Libra it may come as a bit of a disappointment to some to find that the next volume disregards that effort spent there and returns to a less focused set of tales with one arc being about the (mis)adventures three of the members have just living and going about their lives in the city while the second arc introduces a new antagonist and an odd pair of characters at a time when exploring some of the existing members might seem a more natural pace if the story isn’t going to follow the previous villains. The difficulties with connecting with some of the existing cast are reflected even in the first arc as Leo’s portion comes out alright while Zap’s feels like a comedic skit thrown in to add a touch of (slightly) raunchy humor but Stephan’s portion falls flat as putting a character that hasn’t been explored deeply enough into a socially elite party just doesn’t provide a lot of punch, even once his part’s hook gets delivered and it feels like the story (or his portion at least) needed to be held off until a bit more development of Stephan had been done to establish a link between him and the readers to play off the emotions of the events.
The second arc on the other hand is one that comes off as attempting to be much more clever than its finished product actually is as the idea of a literal “monster truck” starts with a nice play on an idea (with what looks like an additional little joke thrown in early on for horror book/movie fans) but as the tale continues the actual mechanics of the story never seem to rise to the level that Nightow pulled off in the previous volume in crafting his antagonist as the enemy here just lacks a certain pizzazz to cause them to really stand out when compared to some other uses of both the character’s appearance and motivation as it feels like it has been done before elsewhere, and better at that. On top of that the new member of Libra comes across as a character that borrows heavily from other sources in its implementation (the comparison to an archenemy of a certain US web slinging hero is pretty inescapable) and the character never quite seems to live up to the billing that the audience is presented with in the build up to his introduction and the potential that seems to be hanging right in front of the audience like a ripened fruit practically begging to be picked.
That isn’t to say that the volume is a loss by any stretch as Nightow’s artwork is often as impressive as ever with a style of imagination that is amazing at times with its bizarre and otherworldly designs that seem equal parts madness and genius and which really set this work in a universe all its own but the story feels less like one where there is a major theme being built toward and more like a traditional US superhero team book where the heroes are manipulated into the exact position they need to be in for their powers to carry the day rather than having to come up with some new and innovative use to get the mission accomplished. In addition to that the imaginative nature of the artwork at times may be too successful in creating such an alien world that following some of the individual panels can become difficult with their lack of having a basis to be related to which then allows the mind to easily place some of the images in a framework. Most of these complaints are somewhat minor but feel like they hamper the title a bit as it has shown some real flashes of inspiration and there is a definite sense that the title is one with a lot of potential, even if a fair deal of that potential isn’t exactly met in each individual story path.
In Summary
After establishing what looks to be a new and dangerous opponent for Libra in the previous volume Blood Blockade Battlefront returns and places those developments on hold while it gives first a “Day in the Life” type tale of three of Libra’s members trying to cope with the various challenges the city and their lifestyle will throw at them before presenting a new peril that gives a new meaning to the name “monster truck” while introducing perhaps the most dangerous- perhaps to his allies as well- member of Libra yet. With his stunning visuals Nightow presents a tale whose artwork is almost always spectacular even if the audience may find they miss the enemy that he looked to be building up in the previous volume as not all the antagonists here seem to capture the same flavor and come off a bit flat in comparison. Still fans of this otherworldly series will find plenty of action and humor to get them through even some slightly rough spots as Libra attempts to keeps some semblance of order in a world gone completely mad.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: N/A
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse comics
Release Date: November 14th, 2012
MSRP: $10.99
