Review: Centipede #2

One of the advantages of basing a comic on a game that has no plotline is that you can do whatever you want with it. As long as the Space Invaders keep attacking relentlessly, you can do whatever you want with the story. In this case, Max Bemis and Eoin Marron have taken a simple game where the objective was to keep your garden bug free and turned it into a story about the destruction of humanity.

On a distant planet, a human colony has been almost wiped out by a giant, flying, all-devouring centipede. Only a single lone survivor, Dale, has managed to outlast the others and outwit the centipede and the giant spiders it brought with it.

The first issue was almost all about the setup of the of this world and the condition it was left in. This issue gives us more background on Dale and the threat he faces. He was a kind of loner in the colony mainly hanging with his best friend and later boyfriend.

The story details the early efforts of the colonists to eliminate the threat and how they failed in all their attempts to destroy the threat of the centipede. It parallels Dale“s story of his attempts to survive against the threat and what appears to be an early victory.

It is becoming clear that Bemis (Crossed: Badlands, Foolkiller) isn“t going to be tried to tell a story of survival, but one of revenge. Unfortunately, Dale, despite the sudden stab at characterization, isn“t really that interesting. Sure his boyfriend was killed by the beast, but he seems less like Ahab seeking his revenge than someone who is doing this because he is bored with hiding.

Marron“s (Sons of Anarchy) art is serviceable, but not exceptional, much like the writing. I realize that the colony was destroyed, but everything is done in muted grays that also dampen any emotional reaction to the art. Even the memories are in grays that stunt the emotional impact of a key story point.

It is disappointing, in a way, that they could have done almost anything in turning this game into a story and yet they chose the most basic one. Even setting it on a distant planet and in the future are elements that they have introduced, but fail to take advantage of in any way.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Max Bemis
Art: Eoin Marron
Cover Art: Francesco Francavilla

Publisher: Dynamite

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!