Review – STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03

by Jonathan O
1 comment

STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03 is the latest issue in a wonderful series about small town zombie mayhem. It was tremendously fun to review and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03 starts with another town getting hit with a zombie virus missile. At first, just a few animals that are infected, but the virus quickly spreads to a cop and soon large parts of the town is inhabited by zombies. GI Zombie, who arrives in the town on the tail of the rouge missile, uses the infection as an opportunity to study the virus, and brings one of the zombies to a clinic. With the help of two doctors, GI Zombie starts making observations about the zombie infection, but the respite is short lived. A Mac truck suddenly slams through a wall of the clinic injuring one of the doctors, and sending GI Zombie and the doctors running for their lives. When they reach a safe-house GI Zombie calls the FBI with a quick sit rep. The FBI informs GI Zombie that they are enforcing a strict quarantine and that he should go find a government official of some kind for tactical information. GI Zombie then heads out to find Mayor Hawkin who is holed up with the amount of guns you pretty much only find in the house of small town Americans. From there, GI zombie heads to one of the two bridges out of town where he faces another zombie hoard. GI Zombie starts firing into a mass of Zombies until his bullets run out and he is reduced to fighting zombies with a knife. The issue then ends with a classic GI Zombie pileup.

POSITIVES:

While I have some issues with the individual frames in STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03, I liked its overall feel. Sometimes it is hard for a comic to really have its own recognizable style, but STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03 has it in spades. You can look at any page in this comic and immediately get the small town America feel.

Review –  STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03

I am not sure if it is the brown and grey tones, or the fantastic backgrounds but STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03 almost looks like something out of an Andrew Wyeth painting.

One of the things I like about this series is that they insert their own brand of humor into every issue. I really enjoyed this hilarious little scene when two of the female characters are approached by a guy in a restaurant. After the guy calls the girls “lesbians” for rejecting him, one of the women pulls a knife and tells the guy off for being a pig by assuming that they are lesbians just because they rejected him. A moment later one of the characters turns to the other and asks, “So are you a lesbian?” “no? Bummer.”

Review –  STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03

STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03 was pretty much just a set up for STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #04 but it was fast moving and satisfyingly violent. Who could ever be disappointed with an issue that starts with a rocket landing and ends in a zombie pile-up.

NEGITIVES:

As usual with this series, it looks like they released STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03 before the art was really finished. The character design was very off. Many of the faces were begging for additional detail, and some of the characters just looked like amorphous blobs.

Review –  STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03

The story also missed a lot of opportunities. Just to list a few:

I would have liked to have seen GI Zombie protecting the two doctors as they moved through the town.

They didn’t actually learn anything of value from studying the zombies.

In the beginning they simply implied a fight between GI Zombie and a hoard of zombie animals but didn’t show it.

CONCLUSION:

STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES GI ZOMBIE #03 missed a lot of plot opportunities plot-wise and the art fell a bit short on the details, but I really enjoyed reading this comic. It was fast paced and styled very uniquely. It is definitely worth a read.

RATING:

rating3outof5-300x51

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