Scourge is a bit like I Am Legend (the film not
the book), the streets are void of life and you can pretty much do anything you
want; including driving a limo on subway tracks. Unlike Legend you have to deal with infected
humans all of the time and they have grown significant strength and abilities so they can do one of
the following: Kill you, eat you or infect you. Our story opens up with Officer
Jon Griffin driving a limo down to the subway to escape a horde of infected.
His passengers include his son, Jon Jr., Astor, a man who helped save his son and
Ali, Jon Jr’s super smart substitute teacher.
Once on the subway tracks they begin talking about what the
infected are doing and trying to figure out what they need to do to stop them.
Because it’s a virus the military isn’t letting anyone off of the island of
Manhattan, leaving them in a bad place when the scheduled nukes show up. Of course
they’re in a bad place now as more of the infected attack the car. The group
fends them off while still driving the car and Jon Jr. gets to witness his
first murder. The team soon figures out a major clue as to what the infected
are doing, but they can’t get the information to the military without going
into the belly of the beast.
Do you like action? Because this book Does. Not. Stop! If
this were a part of a movie it would only be two scenes and everyone would crap
their pants watching the limo part. It’s really good action and frankly
something that could only be done in a comic. Writer Scott Lobdell (Executive Assisstant Iris) does a great
job of making this book feel like an action movie. The characters really aren’t
equipped to defeat the situation at hand, but Lobdell’s writing forces you to
sustain belief and allow this group to be the saviors of the story. He does this
by having cheeky moments between the characters and using the kid to break the
tension of the situation. Which is good because without everyone sugar coating
it for the kid you wouldn’t believe for a second that they are going to make it
out alive, but because of this the characters start to believe their own lie
about their chances for survival.
The art has a very Darkness feel to it, meaning that
there’s a lot of greyish blues and red tones and everything is super detailed.
Eric Battles art is very impressive as he chose a lot of interesting angles and
perspectives for the issue that are not usually seen in comics. The first page
opens with a POV from Jon driving the limo towards the subway and it looks
great. It also gives Lobdell the chance to catch the reader up with caption
boxes without distracting from the art or the characters. Colorist David Cruiel does an amazing
job with the color, especially on the lighting. There’s a real scenes of where
the source of light is coming from and in general the color makes the book look
great. If Cruiel isn’t exclusive to Aspen he needs to do some freelance at Top
Cow so that they can see the difference in their current freelancers.
Personally I read the first issue of this book and it didn’t
grab me and keep me reading. After trying out the fourth issue I have to say I
regret that and wish I had stuck with it. This installment was action packed
and was self-aware of the type of story it was, which allows the reader to not
take it so serious and have fun while reading. If you’re looking for summer
blockbuster that doesn’t disappoint then I recommend picking up Aspen’s Scourge
#4 this week.
Overall Score –
7.8/10
*The story is
recapped enough that if you’re new to the series you won’t be lost*