The Scourge #0 Review

Title:	The Scourge
Contributors:	Scott Lobdell Eric Battle
Publisher:	Aspen
Issue #:	0
Year:	2012
Pages:	17 Pages
Age Rating:	14 (Language, Violence, Gore)
Story Grade:	C
Art Grade:	B

As if New York City hasn't had enough bad events happen to it, now an epidemic spreads throughout the city, turning average NY citizens into winged gargoyles. And the deadly gargoyles start rampaging through the city. One cop, John Griffin, is tossed in the middle of this outbreak and balances fighting to stop the infestation and picking his kid up from school in this action adventure comic.

Cool, kick-ass gargoyles aside, this seventeen page Issue #0 for The Scourge is just an okay comic, enjoyable but not great. The main issue us it is filled with so many clichés... NY City being destroyed (Godzilla, Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, any Marvel movie)... cop with family issues (any cop movie you can think of)... and the count goes on... but even with those cliché themes and plotlines... the comic was entertaining... just not crazy, jump up and down on a couch, good. The book overall feels a lot like a variance of a zombie theme mixed with "Kindergarten Cop" meets "Last Action Hero".

There is considerable narrative dialog that slows down the pacing of the action unnecessarily and the writing is so small that reading it would be chore if done outside of the digital realm where you can zoom.

The real potential treasure of the comic book is the action sequences which are ripe with power and energy. But alas the artwork is muddled at times, so busy that finding the important action points in a panel can be difficult. It's a shame to, because Eric Battle could have simplified the scenes, like that of the cover and used some variance in the color tones to really make the important stuff jump out at the viewer.

I grade the comic a B-. It is a good read, but could have been made better through writing choices and some art changes,,, more with less. I could have went with a C+ grade, but the comic was entertaining, so B- seemed to fit better.

Until next time... Put the phone down and shoot the gargoyle.