Giant-Size Thrills #0

Another Free Comic Book Day flip book from Red Giant by way of the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Giant-Size Thrills
Issue: 0
Publisher: Red Giant Entertainment
Date: May, 2014
Writer: Benny R. Powell, Mort Castle, Kevin Juaire
Artist: Ricardo Jaime, Vincenzo Cucca
Colorist: Marlon Ilagan, Mariacristina Federico
Letterer: Zach Metheny
Editor: Brian Augustyn, David Lawrence

Flip book. First up is Darchon, an urban fantasy story focusing on a man who can see monsters that are invisible to most people. He sees himself as a friend of Darchon, a wizard/detective character from a pulp adventure comic magazine. How much of this magical world is real and how much is delusion is left somewhat unclear.

Flip the book over to find Shadow Children, telling the story of a boy and a girl growing up in a magical dimension, and eventually making their way back to our world.

Neither of these stories managed to hook my interest much. Both were going for a dark fantasy vibe, with Darchon in a straight-up world filled with unseen demons, and Shadow Children putting a dark spin on a fairyland type of setting.

The stories had some appealing visuals, especially Shadow Children, which also appeared to have some complex and well thought out worldbuilding behind it. But none of the characters in either story were all that engaging, and neither story hooked me with its plot.

Rating: 4.5/10

Giant-Size Fantasy #0

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics by way of Free Comic Book Day 2014.

Title: Giant-Size Fantasy
Issue: 0
Publisher: Red Giant Entertainment
Date: May, 2014
Writer: Elaine Lee, David Lawrence, David Campiti
Artist: Francis Nuguit, Jinky Coronado, Larry Tuazon
Colorist: Marlon Ilagan, Katrina Maehao
Letterer: Zach Metheny
Editor: Brian Augustyn, David Lawrence

Flip book.

The companion volumes, Giant-Size Action #0 and Giant-Size Adventure #0 are reviewed here and here.

Pandora's Blogs was an odd story, part medical thriller, part teenage soap opera, and packed with references to Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The title character, Pandora is the daughter of a doctor specializing in very unusual cases, and when her mom performs a seeming miraculous cure on her latest case, Pandora and the patient end up having a magical night at a popular dance club. But things soon go terribly wrong. All of the teenaged characters are gorgeous, and the school drama felt a bit mundane. The medical science in this is fantastical nonsense in spite of a liberal sprinkling of jargon, but the creepy, Twilight-Zone ending was fun and unexpected, and it was enough to get me interested in reading more stories of this world.

Flip over the book, and you get Duel Identity, the story of a woman whose extraordinary abilities make her a popular superhero by day, but she has another occupation as a deadly assassin by night. This was a fun take on the secret-identity trope. The main character makes an important decision here, to set up major plotlines, and it felt like it was a little bit rushed and lacking the full necessary motivation, but I still enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game as the assassin dealt with a two friends who happened to show up while she tried to stalk her quarry at a crowded business event. In spite of her powers, there is a lot of bad luck and bad timing that can interfere with the job, and I felt like the creative team did a good job of showing that. This story felt like it had a lot of potential, and felt fresh even employing relatively familiar tropes of superheroes and assassins.

Rating: 7.5/10