By: Richard Starkings (writer), Alex Medellin (art/colors)
The Story: Ebony, Hip & Trench are killing Tigers on the moon while racial dramas play out on Earth.
Review: Another pretty strong issue of Elephantmen. It’s a shame that more folks don’t read it because it’s a very strong science fiction story. Even if piecing together all the back issues would be tedious, the collected editions are supposedly really sweet.
Part of this issue deals with Ebony, Hip and Trench finishing their attack on the Chinese moonbase wherefrom sprang the Tigermen and the plague that caused all this mess in the first place. Bad, bad Chinese scientists! As you can imagine, the good guys win and it’s pretty fun to see the elephantmen just kicking ass. But it isn’t just “fun” to see them smashing and impaling; it’s also important to the story. One of the bigger themes of the series is whether these hulking creatures that have been bred for war can ever become “decent members of society”. The series has mostly followed elephantmen like Hip and Ebony who are (mostly) successfully making the transition to “gentle giants”, so it’s easy to forget the power and the rage that bubbles under the surface of these creatures. They all have a LOT of blood on their hands and are capable of some pretty brutal things.
In a way, this reminder of the raw power of the elephantmen reminds me of working around agricultural animals. I’m a decent sized guy, can bench-press well over my body weight, etc. I’m used to being strong and in control of my surroundings. But all of that goes out the window when you are handling something like a 17.2 hand horse who is freaking out because of _________. Suddenly you’re reminded that although you may be a big, strong human, that is nothing compared to the power of a 1700 pound horse: it will drag you and pull you around and hurt you badly. Thus, we demand that the huge, 1700-pound horses of the world be well-trained so as not to trample people every time there is a crack of thunder. It’s kinda the same thing with the elephantmen: We will tolerate them in our company as long as they fricking behave the way we want them to! The second they get out of line, “decent citizens” want to eliminate them.
I’m sure there is also an analogy here to members of the military re-assimilating into civilian society. I don’t have personal experience with that, but it’s something to consider, especially in the United States with our all-volunteer military. What we’ve done there is basically create a small class of highly professional soldiers and then dredge them through some of the horrible places of the world before sending them back into “normal society”. That cannot be an easy transition, but it makes me happy that we civilians don’t view our returning soldiers as dangerous the way the elephantmen are viewed. It’s nice to see an example of real-life being better than a fictional world: Our returning soldiers are considered heroes (for the most part) and not looked at as ticking time-bombs.
Then, we have the other part of this issue that deals with Obadiah, Sahara, assassins, etc. This is the thread that has me a little confused because I’m not exactly sure about the motives of the assassins and the status of Sahara and her body double. But, there’s still some juicy stuff from the mouth of Gabbitha (the spiritual leader of the elephantmen) about people who hate Obadiah and Sarah for conceiving a child. He draws comparisons to people’s disapproval of this coupling to other choices of mates who have been found unacceptable in the past: people of other races, people of your same gender, people outside your social class, etc.
Like all good science-fiction, Elephantmen causes you to see connections in your everyday life. Personally, I find those analogies much more interesting than whatever “the story” may technically be about.
As always, Axle Medellin’s art is pretty darn good. All of his action scenes are really clear and I’m amazed at how much energy his characters retain given how finished looking the art is. Often I find that characters have the most energy and power while they’re in the sketch phase and the more inking and coloring performed, the less power they retain. Somehow that’s not a problem for Medellin. He also does a really good job of capturing body language with a character like Gabbitha. I guess it isn’t surprising that a comic artist can draw a gigantic character smashing things. The elephantmen could really just be Hulk figures with a different head. But Gabbatha is very different: He stands up straight can carries himself like a normal human. It’s really nicely done and Medellin has done a nice job of making this book “his own” after some of the great artists that have worked on it in the past.
Conclusion: Surprise! Another very strong issue of Elephantmen. This is probably my favorite science-fiction themed comic being published. Pretty amazing that this comic is still chugging towards it’s 50th issue. How many series hit that milestone today?
Grade: A-
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion