I’ve done it again. I’ve saved Z-Men for last. I do read the books alphabetically for the most part. My favs like Remote and Rise make it to the top quickly, but I always end up for last. Probably because it was the first book I read initially and proved that it was consistently good. I don’t worry about Z-Men being bad, just how much it will entertain me. The fifth issue does just that. Our odd couple buddy cops of Agent Clancy and Agent Stuart continue to fight the zombies all on their own. After accidentally killing their police escort, they now have him in the backseat. He’s not quite a gamma, more of a beta I guess, and he’s hilarious. I sincerely hope they keep him.
Tills, the dead officer zombie, tells the other zombies to raise the drawbridge as Clancy and Stuart head towards the power plant. Clancy responds by jumping the mother fucking bridge. To calm Tills down, Stuart gives him weed. Since Clancy is “going through it” at the moment, he says they’ll leave that part off the official report. As we saw in the fourth issue, the power plant has been taken over, so the question becomes what can Clancy and Stuart do about all the assholes?
This book makes me laugh. The gags and their setups are pretty simple and straightforward, but the characters that have developed make them work. Clancy starts calling everyone an asshole and it’s a joke that should wear thin by the end of the issue, but it doesn’t. It gets better each time he does it. The characters are some of the richest in the Double Take universe.
There was a part where the lettering could have been better. I believe it was Stuart talking about Clancy, but the narration was the same color as the dialogue on the page as well. It just want’s very clear as to who was talking. That and I don’t know why they didn’t turn Stuart when they had the chance other than he’s the main character and it would ruin the book.
The art is consistent, but not as good as previous issues. There were still some great scenes of action, but several pages were much too plain in comparison. This series previously was very consistent, but stumbles here with the art. The coloring was on point though and had some great uses of lighting.
The issue isn’t perfect, but it’s good. It’s above average, making mom and dad proud because it’s getting into a good school, great. I never review this one last because I’m scared to tackle it, but rather because I always enjoy it and want to save one of the best Double Take books for last.
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Z-Men #5 Story: Bill Jemas Script: Jeff McComsey, Bill Jemas Layouts: Jeff McComsey, Stan Chou Pencils: Kurt Tiede, Jaime Salangsang, Alisson Rodgrigues Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital
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