STORY
New comic from Action Labs for review, unfortunately this one just didn’t do anything for me. This comic is meant to be gross, blackly funny, gory and sabbatical. Unfortunately, it only partially succeeds. The plot of the book is simple, stemming from the idea of a reindeer with a chainsaw going on a killing spree. Now this is something that could have worked out but the writer here just misses the boat. It’s a shame because he notes in an afterward that this was a fun project for him but there is just nothing to it.
The comic starts off in a rather mean spirited fashion just for the sake of it showing Santa Claus as a brutal drunkard who regularly beats and rapes his reindeer. It shows how his wife is a nag, his elves are afraid of Santa and losing their job and of course the plight of the reindeer. This pushes the Chainsaw Reindeer (who I will refer to as Chainsaw from this point for brevity) to murder Mr and Mrs Claus as well as all the elves. Aside from the general ugliness of the story here is our first major problem. Up to this point the writer was at least coming up with some interesting ideas and character interactions. These ideas could have been easily built upon. Is Mrs Claus as guilty as Santa? Is she an enabler or worse? Did the elves deserve their fate for their cowardice, or perhaps they could have been conviced to revolt or been forced into defending the North Pole from Chainsaw. All I can see are missed opportunities in a rush to get to the carnage.
Chainsaw frees his fellow reindeer but the escape is explosively thwarted leading to Chainsaw being raped…AGAIN! Seriously, once wasn’t enough to get the point across? And this is where the story truly devolves, all of the previous story logic is thrown out the window as Chainsaw takes up a chainsaw to go on a worldwide killing spree. You see early on we have established that Chainsaw is vulnerable to assault from Santa, lumberjacks and military weapons but now for no reason whatsoever he can defeat the armies of the world in his quest to sleigh (see what I did there) all of humanity. Story logic is completely broken and so is any plot structure. It all becomes one blood-soaked sight gag after another and the only joke that landed for me in the entire book involves a wink from an alligator. Though honestly that should have been a crocodile since that part was set in Australia mate.
It may seem like I’m hating on a book with a silly premise but I’m not. This comic lacks any of the uber gory charm and exploitation of comics like Officer Downe, The Brat Pack, Grizzly Shark or Marshal Law. I get that the author had a goofy idea and ran with it for a one shot but I can’t help but see what it could have been. The worst thing is that this comic just wan’t entertaining.
ART
The artist does a good job with page layout, everything is clear and concise and easy to follow. Story telling is excellent as well. There are some issue here and there with consistency, yeah I know this is a joke book but this sort of thing still matters. Chainsaw’s size is not consistent from page to page. When he needs to look weak he shrinks and when he is murderous he’s huge. There are some glaring perspective mistakes in some panels and a noticeable lack of background, which coincides with the where the story goes off the rails. The coloring is somewhat flat and bland giving everything a short of sameness and yet it avoids getting muddy so points for that.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A comic that honestly should have been a goofy/gory good time turns out to be a real letdown. Check it out for curiosity sake alone if you must. Similar books have been done much better, Like Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe. 1 out of 5!
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CHAINSAW REINDEER ONE SHOT
Writer:Â Brandon Rhiness
Art:Â Carlos Trigo
Colors:Â Przemyslaw Dedelis
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