Review: NUMBER 13 #3

NUMBER 13 #3
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Robert Love and David Walker
PENCILS: Robert Love – @Robert33071
INKS: Dana Shukartsi
COLORS: Heather Breckel
LETTERS: David Walker
COVER: Robert Love with Christian Colbert
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

The story of Number 13 that began in Dark Horse Comics Presents comes to an end. Will Number 13 be back?

Number 13 is a comic book series created by Robert Love. Love draws the series and co-writes it with David Walker. This post-apocalyptic tale is set in a world where a plague, Monstrum Morbus (the monster plague), turned most humans into mutated monsters, the Infected (“the fected”), or killed them. Only a few humans remained unchanged, the Immune (“the mune”), but, in a sense, they did become monsters, as they slaughtered the fected and effectively ended the world. The story centers on a bionic amnesiac known as Number 13 (or Number Thirteen), who is trying to recover his past.

Number 13 #3 continues the story of a war that began 60 years after the end of the world. This war between “the mune” and “the fected” rages with new battles. Number 13, the boy who was created to end it all, is caught in the middle of a battle between The Professor, who created him, and Mother Goose, the manipulative and cunning leader of a band of Infected.

The Professor and his Servators, cyborgs created to hunt and kill the Infected, threatens Mother Goose in order to regain 13 from her. Meanwhile, a Servator accidentally evolves, and 13 comes of age, so to speak.

Over the course of reviewing Number 13, I have noted that I think that this series shows the influence on creator/artist Robert Love of Jack Kirby and John Byrne (himself influenced by Kirby). While reading Number 13 #3, I wondered if this comic book is what a black exploitation science fiction movie would have looked like.

Imagine this union in the 1970s: someone willing to finance such a film, a European director, some Vaughn Bodé conceptual and design work, and a cast of the hottest “Afro-American” actors. I think the resulting movie would have looked something like Robert Love’s Number 13, and that’s a good thing.

Influences aside, I like this series. It’s big, an epic story squeezed into the tight space of a comic book page, but given range by the design and layout that grabs inches wherever they can find it. With the spirit of the Saturday morning cartoons of decades past, Number 13 is fun and imaginative beyond what is expected of it.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Review: NUMBER 13 #2

NUMBER 13 #2
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Robert Love and David Walker
PENCILS: Robert Love – @Robert33071
INKS: Dana Shukartsi
COLORS: Heather Breckel
LETTERS: David Walker with Robert Love
COVER: Robert Love with Christian Colbert
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

Robert Love formed Gettosake Entertainment with his brothers, Jeremy and Maurice, in 1998. Since then, he has worked on a number of comic books, including Fierce (with his brother, Jeremy).

Number 13 is a new comic book series from Robert Love that he co-writes with David Walker. This science fiction tale is set in a world where a plague, Monstrum Morbus (the monster plague), turned people into mutated monsters (“the fected”) or killed them. Only a few humans remained (“the mune”), but they became like monsters as they slaughtered the fected and effectively ended the world. The story centers on a bionic amnesiac known as Number 13 (or Number Thirteen), who is trying to recover his past.

Number 13 #2 opens 60 years after the end of the world. Number 13’s creator, the Professor, recounts the beginning of the plague and the war that followed. He continues his search for 13, his “son.” Meanwhile, Mother Goose, the leader of a small “kingdom” of the fected, continues her manipulation of 13, because she hopes to use him as a defense against the mune who hunt her kind. Meanwhile, some of 13’s new fected friends strike out on their own, only to fall into a trap.

As did the first issue, Number 13 #2 shows the influence on creator/artist Robert Love of Jack Kirby and John Byrne (himself influenced by Kirby). Love has taken his influences and created something new, something that also recalls Vaughn Bodé’s post-apocalyptic-set comics.

Number 13 is like a Saturday morning cartoon, but reflecting Barack Obama-era diversity in terms of the characters and players. After reading the first issue, I was careful not to over-praise. Now, I know I’m right. Number 13 is simply fun to read. I can’t get enough, and I want to spread the Robert Love all over your reading list.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Review: NUMBER 13 #1

NUMBER 13 #1
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Robert Love and David Walker
PENCILS: Robert Love – @Robert33071
INKS: Dana Shukartsi
COLORS: Brennan Wagner
LETTERS: David Walker with Robert Love
COVER: Robert Love with Christian Colbert
PIN-UPS: Ibrahim Moustafa, Jeffrey Kimbler
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

Robert Love of Gettosake Entertainment has a new comic book. It is entitled Number 13, and Love co-writes the series with David Walker. The series is a dystopian science fiction tale set in a future world of mutants and those who hate and fear mutants. Into this world, a young bionic man, with no memory of his past, searches for answers and for his creator.

As Number 13 #1 opens, we learn that a plague, Monstrum Morbus (the monster plague), turned people into mutants, or into monsters, as their human brethren saw it. The human race became divided basically into the two groups: the mune (immune to the plague) and the fected (those infected with it). The violence between the two groups caused the end of the world, as we know it.

Sixty years after the end of the world, the fected are a race of mutants looking for safe haven. A small band of them find a young man who turns out to be a bionic amnesiac known as Number 13 (or Number Thirteen). Neither Number 13 nor his new friends know that they are about to become pawns in a great struggle.

In terms of style and graphics, Number 13 #1 bears a strong resemblance to the comic books Jack Kirby produced for DC Comics in the 1970s. In fact, Dana Shukartsi’s strong inks over Robert Love’s pencils create an art style that is something akin to John Byrne’s Kirby-influenced work, such as the excellent Byrne series, Jack Kirby’s Fourth World.

Of course, that means comic book art that pops off the page and a comic book that is a fun read. The first issue is raw in terms of storytelling, but this will get better. I think many readers will feel the way I do; by the time, I reached the last page, I immediately want to see the first page of the next issue.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux