The Terrifics #7 Review and **SPOILERS**

Would You Be My Enemy?

Storytellers: Dale Eaglesham & Jeff Lemire 

Colors: Mike Atiyeh 

Letters: Tom Napolitano 

Cover: Eaglesham & Ivan Nunes 

Assistant Editor: Andrew Marino 

Editor: Paul Kaminski 

Group Editor: Marie Javins 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: August 22, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

We’re out of the first trade collection of this series, so things should really start heating up! Or fall phenomenally flat. One thing is for sure: Dale Eaglesham is no joke. Set your lookin’ orbs on my review of The Terrifics #7, right here!

Explain It!

Uh oh folks! Now that we’ve been introduced to the dreaded Doctor Dread, and learned that he’s behind many of The Terrifics’ unpleasantries, it’s time for a big showdown! But first…let’s hang around Stagg Industries and chat for a while. See, while The Terrifics have the collective problem of being forced within close proximity of each other due to some kind of dark matter, but they each have their own problems as well: Shadow Lass still can’t affect things tangibly, except when they can; Rex Mason has turned back into a brawny human being, but Sapphire is still giving him the cold shoulder; and Plastic Man has that ill-defined thing about not being to see his kid or whatever. Michael Holt is too complex a man to be boiled down to one easily-relatable problem. He’s just a knot of anxiety. I mean, Doctor Dread warned everyone that he was going to kill Tom Strong, and now Holt has to figure out who and where Tom Strong is.

We learn that he’s the heroic adventurers from another dimension, inhabiting and protecting a super-scientific place called Millennium City. If we’d already read Alan Moore’s Tom Strong and Top 10 series, we know this stuff. But it is nice to get a refresher, and a clue for the uninitiated. The book actually opens with Tom Strong battling against a guy in an awesome robot suit that drops a Phantom Bomb: an explosive that releases ghosts to wreak havoc on the living. And folks, it looks so good, like…holy crap. Why isn’t Dale Eaglesham drawing all the things? What is his page rate? A million dollars a page? IT’S A STEAL. This whole book looks unbelievable, like a visual buffet that will have your eyes heading to the vomitorium. Uh, in a good way. This scene leads to Doctor Dread capturing Tom Strong at the end, after disabling his robotic assistant Pneuman and messing up his family a little. And this is the only time we’ll see Doctor Dread for the entire issue.

Much of it is relegated to The Terrifics acting cranky with each other, and then heading into that alternate dimension to Millennium City and a rendezvous with Tom Strong. Rex Mason gets a laser gun, since he can’t separate from the rest of the team, despite no longer being an Element Man. One there, they find Tom Strong’s lair and Pneuman, who is battered but still able to communicated. He’s covered in some gnarly vines, which Plastic Man scoops away—and in doing this, they grow exponentially and ensnare the Terrifics, then the whole stew teleports away to parts unknown—where Tom Strong is similarly caught in a vine trap of his own!

I mentioned it in the review, but it nears repeating: this issue looks absolutely incredible. I’ve been a fan of Dale Eaglesham’s since he did Secret Six with Gail Simone, and have often wondered why he doesn’t get more work drawing interiors. Seeing this issue, I’m left with one lingering question: WHY DOESN’T DALE EAGLESHAM GET MORE WORK DRAWING INTERIORS??? Whatever is gumming up the works in this regard, it should be solved, because he’s one of the best artists and storytellers to touch the genre of comics. The story here continues to be a kind of aimless stumble through various concepts, with very little payoff. In the beginning, Mr. Terrific accuses Stagg of having engineered all of the team’s problems, then they continue to follow up on a thread left issue by Doctor Dread. That’s the new “big bad” that we see only once in this issue. Meanwhile, we have to contend with a brand new dimension and a host of new characters with their own backstories. This series has felt like all starts, and it’s the seventh issue. I wish I could just recommend this enthusiastically, but there are narrative problems. On the art side, though, it’s well worth your three bucks and eyeball time.

Bits and Pieces:

Go pay three dollars for this issue based on the artwork and layouts alone. Now that you've gotten more than your money's worth, you may notice that the story sort of wanders around until the big cliffhanger at the end. Yeah, it's not the most cohesive story in comics today, but that Dale Eaglesham artwork! Whew!

7/10