Aaah! Wet Hentai Nightmares!
Creative Staff:
Story: Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid
Art: Dean Haspiel
What They Say:
“Fox Hunt, Part 3—The Devil You Know”: Just as The Fox was through being a superhero, his son was putting the final touches on a gift for his dad—a sidekick. Enter: Kitsune—the Ghost Fox! But unbeknownst to father and son, a criminal mastermind has just put a million dollar bounty on the Fox’s head. Now our hero must make sure his son isn’t killed by an entire city filled with villains, including some familiar faces out for vengeance!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a shaky first issue for me, The Fox really picked up in the second installment as Shinji came into his own and took on the role of the Ghost Fox. To say that didn’t go over well with dear old dad is an understatement, though the two had some good action scenes together, some fun banter and a real sense of panic from Paul’s part in seeing what his son was doing. But the focus was on surviving the moment with the attacks that were underway, which caused the two to be separated for a bit. That largely carries through to this issues, but it works entirely in its favor to run the two stories at once that in a sense do intersect back together with a certain bonding element.
Paul’s displeasure about what Shinji is doing is something he rattles off to his wife, Mae, who seems to be waffling in tone about being pleased and displeased, mostly because now there’s a bounty on Paul’s head and he’s concerned that Shinji will get targeted for it. Amusingly, Mae’s back home getting her own costume back on and is ready to join in the family business, which Paul is unaware of. Not that he has time to deal with anything as Madame Satan is back on the scene and she’s using all her suction powers to bring him into the fold for a wedding through any and all means. That has some cute kissy face material at first, but it turns creepy along the way, especially with the maggots, and Paul’s visions of wet hentai nightmares coming true. It’s a solid series of action sequences all around, but mostly it’s just further putting Paul in the hero mode mentally, with the quips, the leaps and the planning in order to deal with her. The more he struggles to get out of the business, the more it drags him back in.
The other arc that plays out has Shinji waking up on a rooftop after being knocked out silly from the previous fight that his father cleaned up. Shinji absolutely loves the feeling of being a hero and is intent on living it up, though it’s going to take some real time and training to get him up to speed. He ends up being accosted by Pneumo, the villain du jour who is looking to cash in on the bounty with the wrong guy. There’s some silliness to be had in Pneumo’s outfit and approach, but he’s a brick that provides a challenge for Shinji that keeps kicking his ass and making him struggle. What works is that even when he’s out, Shinji’s enthusiasm is infectious as he believes he’s so good he took him down while knocked out a bit. Not realizing it was his mother? Priceless. Shinji’s enthusiasm is what drew me in during the second issue, so letting him mostly have a fight arc to himself here, and not do fantastic, works well for me even if it doesn’t truly ground him.
In Summary:
The Fox works really well once again for me here with what it wants to do, in showing that Paul’s not keen on this all but can’t help but to get sucked into things – and enjoy it even as he seems to deny it, and that Shinji is just feeling utterly alive in a way he never has before and will refuse to let go. The two fight arcs are very different but we get a good sense of both father and son throughout it as well as some good fun with the villains and their particular styles and ways. I’m also really keen to see Mae take a proper position in things and provide a little more to the book than the full on man-thing that we’ve had so far, because it’s definitely a bit thick in it at the moment. She has the potential to bring some great material in dealing with both husband and son in this context, as well as coming to life herself after being mostly off page for the first three issues. Her appearance is what I think the book really needed to start feeling “right.”
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Circle Comics
Release Date: June 10th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
