Review: SECTION ZERO #2
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer:Â Karl Kesel
Art:Â Tom Grummett
Colors: Ben Dimagmaliw
Letters:Â Richard
Reviewer: Tony Farina
Summary
Section Zero travel to Australia to figure out what kind of magical creature is killing live stock. They uncover the body of a fish humanoid. Dr. Tina does some medical anthropology. Sam, Thom and Tesla do some serious exposition about who they are and why they are here. Buckle up for pages and pages of Thom and Tesla chatting about bugs, where Tesla is from, how Keeler is a great man and how Section Zero is his only home.
Unsurprisingly, the fish humanoid is actually alive and just really dehydrated. He pulls water from Tina’s body and the atmosphere. Sam arrives with some puns and punches. He and the fish man battle to the death. No, just kidding, it turns out that the fish guy has a name. It is Sargasso and he is actually an old friend of Tina’s dad from the old days of Section Zero.
Meanwhile, Thom, who was left behind during the water sucking, is attacked by the monster that is killing the livestock. It is a sabre tooth and so, as one might expect, Thom turns into a giant Kafkaesque bug and fights off the prehistoric tiger. That leads to a ring of fire, a shadowy non-Section Zero group who is watching the real Section Zero and some time travel.
Positives
The art work here is stunning. Creating creatures that look real is difficult, but Grummett and Kesel are up to the task. The colors pop off the page and Section Zero look like it should be on TV as a cartoon instead of inside the pages of an Image comic. The attention to detail on Sargasso is particularly detailed.
There is a flashback at the end of this story that shows us Tina and Sam’s honeymoon. That was pretty adventurous and fun.
Negatives
Well, for a book about a secret government group who hunts monsters, very little happens in this book that is not first set up by pages and pages and pages of exposition. This could be called, Section Zero: the backstory. While we need to learn about the characters, however, I think this book suffers from too much telling. Please show don’t tell.
Additionally, Sam whines a lot in between action sequences.  The jokes, where there are jokes and puns, don’t land. They are a bit more cringe-worthy than belly laugh funny. Sam is a bit of a caveman when it comes to his ex-wife. She is more than capable of taking care of herself. She is the leader of Section Zero after all.
Verdict
Ultimately, Section Zero is potentially great. The time travel is fun. There is some double crossing going on. It is pretty well set up to be fantastic. It is only a mini-series, so maybe all this exposition this month is there to prepare us for the final four issues of awesome. It is well drawn and worth seeing, but the pace needs to be picked up before it becomes Section Zero: boring and redundant.
