Written by James Patrick
Art by Rem Broo
Published by Aftershock Comics
Let me say right up front that I really dislike the way the artist of the Kaiju Score, Rem Broo, draws humans.
Personal taste, I guess, but to me they’re uglier than the monsters. They don’t even always look like the same characters from panel to panel, issue to issue. Other than the human characters, though, some of the rest of the art is quite fetching and I do like it.
In fact, I like the first two issues of Aftershock’s Kaiju Score pretty much.
Creator/writer James Patrick’s uncensored script successfully works to bring a gritty modernity to this story of a small-time crook with a history of making one fatal mistake per job. As our story opens, he’s busy gathering a cliché crew of pros to whom he lays out a supposedly foolproof plan taking advantage of giant monster migration.
That’s right. At least one difference between the world of this series and our own is that Kaiju—giant, Japanese movie-style monsters—are real and regularly known to everyone. By name.
Other than that, the first issue is a pretty standard setup for a heist story while the second throws the reader right into the action.
The second issue also offers one twist that was—to me—very unexpected and that should directly affect the remainder of the series. A secondary twist also rears its ugly head as the book becomes very suddenly violent.
Going forward, the giant monsters will take a more active role in the plot than they have thus far, I assume, or what’s the point of having giant monsters?
I don’t think I would go out of my way to read any more issues of Kaiju Score but if I do some day stumble onto the inevitable collection, I would be interested in seeing how it all progressed.
Darker than expected but fun. A mild recommendation but a recommendation nonetheless.
Booksteve recommends.
