BOOM! Studios – @boomstudios
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
WRITER: Victor LaValle – @victorlavalle
ARTIST: Dietrich Smith
COLORS: Joana Lafuente
LETTERS: Jim Campbell
COVER: Micaela Dawn
VARIANT COVER: Brian Stelfreeze
CHARACTER DESIGNS: Dietrich Smith and Dan Mora
28pp, Colors, $3.99 U.S. (May 2017)
Created by Victor LaValle
Victor LaValle's Destroyer is a new comic book created and written by author Victor LaValle (Slapboxing with Jesus). The series is drawn by Dietrich Smith (who designed the characters with artist Dan Mora). Joana Lafuente provides colors, and Jim Campbell does lettering, with covers drawn by Micaela Dawn.
Destroyer takes as it inspiration the Gothic novel, Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (first published in 1818). In this sequel/descendant tale, a woman who can call Victor Frankenstein an ancestor uses science to recover life and justice. Meanwhile, Frankenstein's original creation has returned to the world.
Victor LaValle's Destroyer #1 opens in Antarctica, where the creature created by Frankenstein violently reintroduces himself to humanity. He is found by the crew of the ocean-going vessel, Robert Walton, but both the captain and his new passenger seem aware that each has dark motives towards the other. Meanwhile, Professor Josephine Baker uses her scientific gifts and Frankenstein's alchemy to pierce the veil of death.
On a recent trip to the “local” comic book shop. I came across Victor LaValle's Destroyer #1 on the shelf, my eyes drawn to Micaela Dawn's striking cover art. Noticing that the cover's subject matter was a young Black male, I told myself that if this comic book's author was a Black man, I would purchase it and review it. The small photographic image of Victor LaValle printed twice in this comic book certainly looked like that of Black man, so I picked up Destroyer #1
I make no apologies for deciding to read Victor LaValle's Destroyer #1 only if the writer were African-American. I don't owe anybody anything. I have been patronizing and praising a legion of White male comic book writers from all over the world (but especially North America and Europe) for decades. Now, more than ever I want to enjoy comic books created by Black people/descendants of Africans brought to America.
Truth is, though, Victor LaValle's Destroyer #1 would be a fantastic comic book if a Red Martian wrote it. Destroyer #1 is so dark and ominous that it is like an omens and portents generator. The story is so honest in its brutality, but it is sweetly sly about its darker motivations. Sometimes, it takes something to remind us that the horror of police shootings of Black men really is more horrifying that it is horrible. I think that mixing the death of Black child with existential threat of Frankenstein is a sheer genius on LaValle's part.
I love the art that Dietrich Smith (who is also African-American) produces for this comic book. It is powerful graphic storytelling that has a spirit which reminds me of the art produced for classic DC Comics/Vertigo titles like Sandman and Preacher. I think Dietrich is a troublemaker like LaValle. Let's put both of them on Jeff Sessions watch list.
Seriously, I am almost too afraid to read the second issue because this one made me feel uneasy. But when a first issue is this good, I gotta open that crypt of the next issue.
A
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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