Comics Fondle

I’ve read this Man-Thing comic before, the movie prequel, but not since having actually seen the movie. Rodionoff sprinkles the comic with tie-ins, the same characters, some of the same scenery showing up in Kyle Hotz’s art, but it’s rather separate from the movie. The big difference–and what I loved about the comic when I first read it–is in the tone. Rodionoff’s protagonist in the comic is an unflappable insurance investigator who encounters (and names) the titular creature.

It’s a cool way to do a movie tie-in and a nice change from the standard three issue limited. Rodionoff’s got a limited number of pages and he uses them well, amusing and interesting the reader as he goes. The present action isn’t particularly long and it’s not a widescreen comic either, so Rodionoff fills the pages mostly with comedy, but also a good deal of suspense. Kyle Hotz’s art doesn’t exactly work for suspense, though–Hotz is a competent artist, but he reminded me a little of a watered-down Mike Ploog.

The nicest thing about Rodionoff’s script is the protagonist setup. He enters the story at the beginning, just like the reader, but instead of it unfolding in front of him (and the reader), he finds himself in the middle of it. Rodionoff does an excellent job of letting the bigger narrative unfold around the insurance investigator’s relatively small story.

Unfortunately, since the protagonist’s story is so small and does have so little to do with the surrounding events, the whole thing is much ado about nothing. It’s also too bad Rodionoff has a better ending for the comic than he does for the movie, especially since the comic’s rather nice ending suggests such good things about his writing.

B