Spectress and Sabanion #3

Written by: Kurt Zauer
Artwork by: Topper Helmers
Colors: Wesley Wong
Letters: Dave Lentz

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Monsters. Special Teams soldiers. Guns. Boots. Ancient stories.

It seems like for the realm of comics that there's a steady supply of supernatural 'stuff' out there. The ratio of protagonists who are 'normal,' that is, could pass for any person on earth vs. 'Super-' -dangerous, or -stealthy or -powerful is way out of whack. I'd say one to ten, at least. And why not? Normal people are boring. Most new writers in comics leap right in with their 'monster' or 'ancient evil' that's going to take the world by storm. Ironically, the problem they create for themselves is that by definition a supernatural character must be somewhat one-dimensional. They're less interesting as characters because usually they have just one main reason for existing, or just one main task to accomplish.

Why do these ancient spirits appear? What's their agenda? What are the soldiers supposed to be doing? What are their orders?

Concept driven, not story driven.

As it is, with Spectress and Sabanion we get a tale spun on a very well-travelled road indeed. There's soldiers. There's a 'ghost woman/Egyptian diety' type character. There's a fiery demon. They appear in the hidden compound. They have to go somewhere. The soldiers need to stop them. Meh. Write a scene in a forest with a monster holding a sword, and I guarantee to you that there's less to work with than a young black woman with her earbuds on grooving to a beat walking down a street in her Brooklyn neighborhood in 2022.

Compounded with this is Kurt Zauer's emphasis on back story, on world-building and very foggy special effects. Spectress and Sabanion falls victim to a creator who's motivated by concept and hasn't paid much attention to story.

There's a strong sense that everything I'm reading is just a place holder: the real material lies in the structure of this demon-universe the author has cooked up. If that's the case then maybe this could've been structured like a military report, outlining the nature of what they're studying/controlling. The reader can infer a story based on the transcripts.

However...

The demon Sabanion is rendered really cool. I like when he's on a rampage, and has flowing lava all around him!

Next two Tuesdays:

The Deadliest Bouquet
a 200 plus page Graphic Novel by Erica Shultz and company.
Three sisters deal with their Nazi-fighting mother's past...

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