Xombi #6 – Review

By: John Rozum (writer), Frazer Irving (artist)

The Story: I don’t know about you, but I have a sudden urge to play Cranium.

The Review: Every writer on the market has a measure of imagination; you can’t get anywhere in writing if you don’t.  But it’s fair to say that some have a little more than others.  While you have plenty of people who can take classic ideas and polish them up to make them like new, only a very few, dare I say special, individuals can dream up something so unheard of that it deserves the classification of originality.  I contend Rozum is one of those special guys.

But don’t take my word for it; take Rozum’s, in his description of the Sisterhood of Blood Mummies: “…they each have developed a second, external [circulatory system] connected to a second heart.  The extra blood…gives them incredible energy and endurance levels…  To protect themselves they wear cloaks woven…by spiders which crawl all over these cloaks making any necessary repairs and feeding on the mosquitos drawn to the sisters.”

Rozum also delivers a solidly crafted story.  Though he dropped in a handy plot device last issue with the Pearl of Wisdom, he doesn’t use it give David and his pals a convenient way out of their predicament.  Of all the revelations the pearl offers to David, he chooses not the one that will help him defeat Finch, but one that eventually serves a different, but nonetheless crucial task in reviving the fortunes of the ruined Floating Skull.  It says a lot about the kind of person David is.

To overcome Finch and his goonies, David and his friends rely on the integrity of their plan and their own competence.  Remember, these people have been around.  Life-threatening challenges all come part of a day’s work.  In the end, they all tackle their particular roles smoothly—maybe a little too smoothly.  It would’ve been nice to see them struggle in action, particularly when you pit a chain-smoker, a nun with two daggers, and a rabbi versus a gang of blood mummies with moon swords.  But Rozum likely had to sacrifice some scenes to get this issue to a timely finish.

Finch, as a villain who relies on foresight and long-term planning to accomplish his selfish goals, also would’ve profited with a couple more issues to bait and outsmart David and Co.  Instead, we get treated to a rambling treatise about the future being as easily accessible to us (but mostly him) as the present.  Meanwhile, you wonder why he doesn’t just have his Dental Phantoms kill off Annie and David where they stand.  His monologue proves a waste of time on many levels; all the foresight in the world can’t predict what a human’s feelings make her capable of.

Once things quiet down, Annie and David have a heart-to-heart which plays on their simmering romantic tension, but also reveals that each has learned the same lesson from the other: only you can decide where you belong, though the harsh truths of reality may push otherwise.  It’s good to know that when David’s life as a Xombi ultimately outlives his normal life, there may still be a girl with hair like fusilli, living on an invisible, flying skull, waiting for him.

People get so caught up with Irving’s particular style that occasionally it seems like they can’t see the trees for the forest.  In this issue, you should take note of how technically able Irving’s work can be, especially in the enormous range and subtlety of expression he gives the characters.  Irving has a wonderful imaginative flair, but he can also ground the emotions of a scene to make them sympathetic and relatable.

Conclusion: I won’t speak for anyone else, but I think it’d be terribly cruel if DC really gave this title a second life, only to kill it once more just as it was getting back into its groove.  If my opinion means anything at all, please consider bringing it back someday in the very near future.

Grade: A-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Lord, how I love a ray gun that looks like it has a trumpet for a muzzle.  All kinds of old-school awesome.

– I like that the Dental Phantoms can only communicate by spitting out printed strips from their mouths.