I never really got into the whole "jungle hero" genre. Even beyond superheroes, I gravitated to Westerns or detective stories (as you've no doubt surmised if you've read this blog for any period of time.) Tarzan didn't interest me, and while the Savage Land is a cool setting, I always more interested in seeing characters that didn't normally hang out there get thrown in the deep end. If Ka-Zar or Shanna show up, that's fine, but I'm not doing cartwheels about it.
But, what the hell, give it a try. Dynamite does so many variant covers, it's not hard to find a copy of a given back issue cheap, put together a run of a series that only went 11 issues, counting the 0 issue. I don't know how much of what Bennett and Trujillo are doing here is well-established lore and what's new stuff they came up with, but it's definitely a lot weirder than I expected. Like, a ruthless corporation flouting the law to try and exploit natural resources? Trouble with the local wildlife? Yeah, I expected that stuff.
Temples that have doorways to other realms, realms full of beings that attempt to copy and replace whatever they encounter? Sheena's dagger is made of some special metal that can hurt them and/or seal the doorways? That I wasn't expecting.
Bennett and Trujillo also have Sheena encounter one grandparent from each side of her family, and neither meeting goes well. Her paternal grandfather is the head of the evil company, and doesn't realize the odd young woman he derides as a 'violent primitive,' and uses a shock collar on, is actually the daughter of his son, who died in a plane crash in the mountains. Her maternal grandmother, on the other hand, understands who Sheena is straight off, or at least that she's a descendant. But Grandma - who has aged very gently - is of the opinion all outsiders ("Cowodi") need to die. Which includes the goober on the ground up there, who became a determined, if not competent, ally for Sheena. In both cases, the grandparent is too blinded by their own pain and loss to recognize or appreciate who's in front of them, refusing to accept anything other than someone who thinks exactly like them.
The series also brings up - and again, I don't know if this is established lore or something new - that Sheena's parents met because her mother was forcibly removed from her tribe in the Amazon and put in one of those school like they have here in the U.S. where they wanted to sever any connection between Native American kids and their own culture. It makes me wonder about the nature of the relationship Sheena's parents had, something she either doesn't know or just doesn't think about.
Moritat last about 4 issues as artist, and then is replaced by Maria Sanapo (with the occasional assist from other artists.) Sanopo's a bit more consistent on figures, faces less exaggerated. Feels like there's a strong element of Frank Cho in her work, albeit with 90% fewer panels focused on a woman's ass than you'd get with Cho. Moritat tends to treat proportions and whatnot as suggestions or vague guidelines. The looser approach works well for the more monstrous or inhuman elements than Sanopo's steadier art. Unfortunately, the Face-Stealers and Death Blossoms and whatnot don't really become prominent until after Moritat's departed.
There's been at least one more Sheena series from Dynamite since, but I don't know if it's following up from this one, or just kind of its own thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment