Book Review: iZombie Vol. 4 by C. Roberson et al.

iZombie Volume 4: Repossession written by Chris Roberson, art by Michael Allred, J. Bone, and Jim Rugg, colors by Laura Allred, and letters by Todd Klein

After the massive zombie outbreak in Eugene, Oregon, an even worse apocalypse is about to befall our heroes. Galatea, the evil scientist, is trying to speed up the arrival of an inter-dimensional being that will eat the entire world. Various forces are trying to stop that, including the government-backed Dead Presidents (a group of vampires, ghosts, and other monsters), the ancient society known as the Gravediggers (including Gwen's boyfriend), and Amon the Mummy who has personally fought Galatea before. Gwen is caught in the middle when Amon explains that she has the power to send the being back to its own dimension by sacrificing everyone in Eugene. Too bad her brother and parents just showed up in town, huh? The story races to a dramatic finale with Gwen finding another way to defeat the bad guy.

The apocalyptic story is imaginative and pulls a lot of different elements in the story together. Unfortunately, the book gets saturated with romantic intrigues between various characters, creating a lot of soap-opera style subplots that are a lot less interesting. To me, they read like filler. The art style switches in a couple of issues that were drawn by guest artists. I found the change distracting. The story ends well, or as well as a horror-comedy comic could.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: iZombie Vol. 3 by C. Roberson et al.

iZombie Volume 3: Six Feet Under and Rising written by Chris Roberson, art by Michael Allred and Jay Stephens, and colors by Laura Allred

See my review of Volume 1 here. and Volume 2 here.

Gwen, the intelligent zombie, is fulfilling another dead person's unfinished business when she's invited by local mummy and seeming villain Amon for a special event. They celebrate her birthday with Ellie the Ghost and Scott the Were-Terrier. Amon makes another pitch for Gwen to help his schemes but she says no. He want her to take innocent lives and eat more brains but hasn't quite explained all his motives. The action picks up when Gwen's monster-hunting boyfriend starts fighting local vampires and zombies who are becoming more numerous. Scott falls through a sinkhole at the graveyard and discovers underground caverns that are full of zombies. While Gwen mounts a rescue effort, her boyfriend's partner gets more monster hunters from their secret HQ in London to bring back to Eugene, Oregon. If that wasn't bad enough, this issue introduces The Dead Presidents, a federal government secret agency that also hunts monsters (though the agents are all monsters, but the good(?) kind). They have some non-Oregon adventures but soon enough are drawn into the zombie outbreak in Eugene. 

The story is still interesting and weaves in a lot of different narratives of the ever-expanding cast of characters. There's hints that Amon knew Gwen before she turned and that a mad scientist is involved with summoning a world-ending elder god/monster. None of those are resolved because there's still another volume to go.

Recommended--this is a different zombie story that throws in enough new stuff to keep it interesting.

Book Review: iZombie Vol. 2 by C. Roberson et al.

iZombie Volume 2: uVampire written by Chris Roberson, art by Michael Allred and Gilbert Hernandez, and colors by Laura Allred

See my review of Volume 1 here.

The latest brain that Gwen has to nosh on is a mom who died in a fire. The mom regrets alienating her daughter. The daughter turns out to be an old friend of Gwen's, so she's worried that she'll get recognized by someone who went to her funeral. Gwen can't remember her funeral. In a tough twist, she has a vision of the daughter playing with a little boy whom Gwen assumes is a sibling. She right, though the boy is actually Gwen's sibling that she has forgotten! Gwen finds her brother but doesn't have the nerve to talk to him.

Meanwhile, Amon the Egyptian mummy (who does not run around in bandages) reconnects with an old acquaintance, a mad scientist-type named Galatea who has a scheme for taking advantage of an elder god. She naturally wants Amon's help but he's reluctant. 

Also meanwhile, Scott the were-terrier introduces Ellie (the ghost part of the zombie/were-terrier/ghost trio) to the new incarnation of the grandfather who raised him. His granddad died recently and followed Scott around until he was able to possess a monkey. So the grandfather's oversoul is in the monkey and can't get out. Maybe Ellie can help?

Also meanwhile, the monster-hunter Horatio (who is romantically interested in Gwen) is busy busting up a vampire ring on the outskirts of town. The vampires (all young females who are running a paintball company and snacking on the clientele) turn the tables on Horatio and his partner and try to work out a deal. If the monster hunters leave the vampires alone, the vampires will give them the scoop on zombie activity in the area. Will Gwen's secret get revealed?

The various plots are interwoven with each other and with some backstories for Ellie and Scott, making for a lot of different things happening. The stories are enjoyable and the bigger picture has some interesting dramatics developing. 

Recommended--this is the sort of lighter zombie fare which is hard to find amongst all the apocalyptic landscapes.

Book Review: iZombie Vol. 1 by C. Roberson et al.

iZombie Volume 1: Dead to the World written by Chris Roberson, art by Michael Allred, and colors by Laura Allred

Gwen Dylan is a gravedigger at a "green" cemetery in Eugene, Oregon. They don't embalm the corpses so the environment doesn't get polluted. It's a handy job for her because she is a zombie and needs to eat at least one brain a month or else she will turn into a shambling, mindless, flesh-eating scavenger like in all the b-movies. The only catch is that she starts seeing the dead person's memories, which can be annoying. Sometimes they want her to do some unfinished business or right some wrong. The latest brain she ate was from a murdered man, so he wants some vengeance. 

Gwen has two friends--Ellie, who is the ghost of a 1950s-era teenager and hangs out at the cemetery (where she was buried long ago, so no weird brain-eating connection) and Scott, who is a very much alive young male and not a werewolf, he's a wereterrier. His backstory is not explained but he meets up with the girls at a local diner when he's not working his tech-support job at a high-rise for seniors. They help her investigate the crime, which leads to a house where they trick-or-treated (as a joke) last Halloween. The homeowner turns out to be from ancient Egypt who has been keeping himself alive and fresh-looking (hardly any bandages on this mummy) for millennia by eating other people. He claims he only kills guilty people. He's had to stay one step ahead of a monster-killing cult by moving often (well, often for a 3000-year life span). He wants her to help him. Gwen doesn't buy it. He tries to convince her that her system isn't working--he asks her how she died and she can't remember, so the brains aren't keeping her as fresh as she supposes. She needs to think about his offer.

Meanwhile, a local paintball course is run by a group of female vampires who try to get by with snacking on one or two customers without killing them. One of the vampires goes rogue and kills a guy in town. Before the head of the vampires (a very domineering type) can get to her, a pair of monster-killers from a millennia old group gets the rogue vampire. They are in town to eliminate undead problems. One of the monster-killers stops in at the local diner where he bumps into Gwen and they hit it off romantically. Too bad they are not on the same side in the bigger picture!

The story is fairly interesting and fresh. At one point, the mummy character explains to Gwen what's going on. Each person has an "oversoul" that runs their higher functions and an "undersoul" that runs their appetites and instincts. When someone dies, both souls are supposed to leave, but sometimes one stays with the body or one of the souls stays without a body. A bodiless oversoul is a ghost like Ellie. A bodiless undersoul is a poltergeist. A body with only an oversoul is a vampire. A body with only an undersoul is a zombie. Also, the bodiless souls can "infect" a living person, including bodiless undersouls of animals, hence werewolves and wereterriers. An oversoul in someone else's body is like demonic possession. So the authors have a fairly well-developed system to explain what's going on. The interweaving of various plot strands is also skillfully done, making the story both entertaining and easy to follow even with a myriad of characters who are not immediately connected together. 

The comic series was popular enough to get turned into a TV show, which had an interesting first season but not all the supernatural complications of the print version. The show, which started as a riff on the police procedural, turned into more of a soap opera in subsequent seasons and I lost interest. It's fun to go back to the comics and re-experience the creativity of the original.

Recommended.

Book Review: Daredevil Vol. 4 by M. Waid et al.

Daredevil Volume 4 written by Mark Waid and art by Chris Samnee and Michael Allred

The Avengers perform some invasive surgery on Matt Murdock's brain after Doctor Doom filled it full of nanobots trying to steal Daredevil's sonar power. The surgery is mostly successful. Matt still has some troubles, especially when he starts hallucinating. His law partner, Foggy Nelson, has had it with Matt's instability and breaks up the legal team. Daredevil goes off the deep end as he faces a new villain, the Coyote. Coyote has been knocking off a lot of drug lord in New York City in gruesome and unlikely ways. Their confrontation resolves some problems for Matt but makes others worse.

The story takes a dark swerve away from the light-hearted swashbuckling in previous volumes. Matt deals with more personal demons and more horrible happenings. The ending itself is a bit of a downer for the Man without Fear. Still, I want to find out what happens, so I will keep reading!

Recommended.