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Storytellers: Lee Allred & Michael Allred
Colorist: Laura Allred
Letterer: Nate Peikos of Blambot
Cover By: Michael & Laura Allred
Variant Cover By: Aaron Conley
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: July 12, 2017
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE
BOTTOM**
Oh, flew in from the Kanga Rat Murder Society
Didn’t see Sandman last night
On the way Orion sat right next to me
Man, that guy is too uptight
I’m back in the Jack Kirby oeuvre
You don’t know how lucky you are, uh
Back in the
Back in the
Back in the Jack Kirby oeuvre
Explain
It!
After having stepped through a portal with Kazuko and
her Teddy Bear…or maybe that’s Teddy Bear and its Kazuko, Bug lands on a pile
of conveniently-placed hay while Kazuko floats down gently in Bug’s
shield/backpack thingy. They encounter a yak with saxophone-shaped horns, which
blows a huge green loogie on Bug’s face. So they decide to set up camp for the
night. Kazuko pulls a can of chili from the Teddy Bear’s stomach, and the Teddy
Bear seems to know everything that will happen and why they are here—including
the fact that Atlas the Great and Chagra come barreling in and destroy the
camp! We already met Chagra last issue, but Atlas first appeared in 1st Issue Special #1 (cover date April
1975), a point Bug makes light of as they tussle. Bug and his crew eventually
tickle Atlas’ funny bone enough so that he decides they can keep their camp,
and he walks away with Chagra tucked under his arm. When the fire is re-lit,
Teddy Bear explains that Chagra will steal the Orichalcum that he stole last
issue in the future, so they can’t bust this Chagra for it now. Teddy Bear also
reveals that it’s actually a mystical nine-tailed fox spirit god named Hu Li
Jing, but somehow stuck in a stuffed animal’s body. Then Kazuko shows Bug the
bottom of Teddy Bear’s foot, and sees “Hooligan, Kazuko Age 4” scrawled there,
and laughs at Hooligan the Teddy Bear’s attempt to pass itself off as something
it’s not. And that’s when Hooligan points out that Bug does the same thing,
trying to pass himself off as a bug.
Hooligan says that when Bug died at the end of Cosmic Odyssey, Highfather made Orion
take Bug back to the colony, where the other inhabitants would tear him apart
and eat him. Considering all these humans going cannibal made Orion realize
what Hooligan is now trying to impart to Bug: that he is not a bug. As proof, he tells Bug to look at his belly
button. This proves he was born, not hatched from an egg. Then Hooligan says he
should get some rest, because they’ll be running for their lives in the
morning. He tells Bug the actual story of his funeral, that he was jammed up
against the Source Wall like every other tool on New Genesis when they die, and
Bug drifts off the sleep. The next day, they all head out on the snotty yak and
trail Atlas and Chagra to a city, but they’re stopped at the border and Kazuko
just Boom Tubes away, leaving Bug and Hooligan to contend with city guards.
Which Bug does by leaping away from him.
He happens upon Atlas confronting the man who
enslaved his parents, Hyssa, with a large gem that is the key of his clan.
Atlas smashes the gem into Hyssa’s face, and then Hyssa turns into a bunch of
talking snakes? They’re friendly, too; the snakes killed the slavers some time
ago, and now have been wearing their skins as a warning to others. Did I drop
acid while reading this comic book and forget about it? In the confusion, Atlas
drops the gem and Chagra greedily lunges for it and teleports away, which is precisely
the thing Bug was supposed to prevent. Kazuko conveniently Boom Tubes in and
lets Hooligan and Bug escape, just as guards enter the place. They wind up at
Crystal Mountain, a place where the multiverse is displayed on various facets
that make up the landscape? Or something? Chagra is there, running simulations
of his life that lead him to believe that he’s actually a computer program.
Someone definitely slipped me some
acid around page ten. Atlas is about to destroy Crystal Mountain, then Chagra slips
through another Boom Tube created by Kazuko’s jury-rigged Motherbox—so Bug
somehow makes it a Negative Boom Tube, and this thwarts Chagra? I think? In the
end, it turns out to have been a bad thing, so you can search me for answers.
You won’t find any.
I like the sly references to Jack Kirby and Bronze
Age DC Comics, but this issue was nigh incomprehensible with its allegories and
bizarre sequences. It really did feel like I was on some kind of drug, but it’s
been so long since I took any that I can’t remember which one. The art is
great, the plotting is terrific, and there’s plenty to like about this comic
book. But the story is less comprehensible than the Principia Discordia, and
that’s not good comics.
Bits and
Pieces:
More traipsing through what feels like Bug's fever dream, orchestrated by a stuffed animal, abetted by Jack Kirby comic books. I love looking at this thing, but this shtick is wearing a little thin. While the book's story certainly moves with gusto, I don't sense that it's moving forward.
6/10
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