DC Comics new mini series Weird Worlds is written just for me. I opened it up anxiously awaiting the stories about Lobo (A personal favorite of mine. What’s not to love?? He’s a brazen lunatic with a rock hard body and probably knows more things to do in the bedroom than you can think of…..Oh Shut-up! You know you’ve all thought it!!), Garbage Man and that crazy bitch Tanga and was not let down.
Weird Worlds is an odd title to pull out of the closet. It was a short lived Science Fiction series from 1972-1974 that lasted only ten issues. Originally a vehicle for Edgar Rice Burroughs stories that DC had the rights to (including the “John Carter” side stories from Tarzan #209 written by Marv Wolfman) Weird Worlds sold decently until John Carter was returned to the Tarzan Family books and Howard Chaykin’s Iron Wolf began. Cancellation is not blamed on poor sales, but rather DC’s Explosion of titles from the late 70′s to compete with Marvel Comics.
So why bring it back after a nearly 40 year hiatus?? I Imagine it’s cause they have these Kick Ass odd ball characters to write about that don’t quite fit into the regular DCU. One could call each of them weird in their own rights and they definitely are not of THIS WORLD so BAM…we have bizarre stories from Kevin Vanhook & Jerry Droway (Lobo), Aaron Lopresti (Garbage Man) and Kevin Maguire (Tanga) about three misfits on their own personal journeys.
Lobo find himself quite dead at the beginning of his venture. An over enthusiastic bounty hunter thinks he has the up and up on Lobo when he luckily blasts half his skull off, but I don’t think he was counting on Lobo’s healing power to regenerate the one thing Lobo barely uses….his Brain. After Lobo “clears the air” with his assailant and finds his “mark” things start to look up, but has Lobo got into more than he can bargain for?
Kevin Vanhook brings out the fun in what is ultimately a bloody bathe of a tale. He’s captured the cruel essence of Lobo and the humor of cocky bounty hunters perfectly. How he has Lobo defeat his “killer” is purely inventive and quite gross and that is OK with me! Droway’s art is on pair with the gritty and violent story, sparing no blood or guts, which adds the gross-factor and humor of the story.
Next we have Aaron Lopresti’s Garbage Man. A new edition to the DC Universe, Lopresti creates a cross between Swamp Thing and the Toxic Avenger into the DCU. A law firm representative is taking hostage and is forced into a crazy experiment by a mad scientist. When it goes wrong the scientist decides to clean the slate and burns the project to the ground. Little did he know his experiment was a success and from the rubble and sewage of the “accident” Garbage Man is born.
I really have no clue where Lopresti is going with this creation, but I’m totally willing to take the ride. It’s not an original concept, but his art style is always appealing I bet this is going the way of bad Sci-Fi movies from the 50′s. SQUEE….excited.
Lastly, Tanga-Distrait. Tanga was created by artist/scribe Kevin Maguire. A story about a “Space Girl” that floated around his head, Maguire was ecstatic when Dan Didio stopped at his table on comic con to tell him his “Space Girl” concept was green lite. Originally conceived as a back up story in R.E.B.E.L.S., Tanga finds a perfect home in Weird Worlds as she searches the universe for something important. We don’t know what it is yet, but it’s out there and she’ll know it when it happens.
In the mean time she’s dodging aliens and hoping Lobo doesn’t come to collect on the money she swears she doesn’t owe him. She’s sassy, purple and kinda hot and I think I love her. Kevin Maguire, I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us with Tanga!
Like I said at the beginning I think Weird Tales was written just for me. I really enjoyed it and hope you give it a chance as well, cause I’d like to see more of it!
