Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Solomon Grundy # 1 (of 7)

By Koppy McFad
March 7, 2009 - 23:10

Cyrus Gold, the man who became the monsterous Solomon Grundy, is given the chance to lift his horrible curse-- but unseen forces and his own dark nature may prevent this.

This miniseries tries to shine some new light into the creation of Grundy, the seemingly-unkillable monster who has haunted the pages of DC comics for over half a century. The Phantom Stranger and the Golden-age Green Lantern are trying to lift the curse that created Grundy but evil forces are standing in their way, not to mention Cyrus Gold himself doesn't seem to be cooperating.

In this issue, a guest star appears and starts slugging it out with Grundy, causing widespread damage. There are scattered clues as to the nature of the curse and the real origin of Grundy but nothing is spelled out.

While the story is interesting, it is also rather alienating and hard to get into. The art is rather dark and gruesome with Grundy looking and acting very Hulk-like while the rest of the cast look muddy and unattractive-- even a supposedly handsome character like Alan Scott.

Admittedly this is a dark and mysterious tale, just as much a horror story as a superhero story so it should not be as clean and slick as other superhero tales. But it still makes it hard to follow the story and the various deaths in this book take place so casually that they fail to horrify the reader.

Kolins, who is writer and artist of this miniseries, lets his artist side overwhelm his writer side. At one point, Grundy is fighting another monster in a swamp when the monster seizes him and leaps into the air to land on a Gotham City bridge-- all for no apparent reason. Naturally the two monsters bring the bridge down in flames and rubble, It looks very impressive. But it doesn't really make much sense. Judging from the plot, the writer needed to get the action back into Gotham. But the artist felt compelled to do it in a flashy, explosive fashion.

There are still too many things that are vague about this issue. Some things just aren't depicted clearly (was Cyrus Gold's father crushed by a loan shark?) or are intentionally obscured (how did that demon-thing in the beginning get his head blown off?) The story of Grundy is still quite intriguing but it needs to be handled better if it is to hold the reader's interest.

 

Rating: 6 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12