The Umbrella Academy, Pantheon City, ZeroKiller

Dark Horse Comics

Writers: Gerard Way ( Umbrella Academy), Ron Marz (Pantheon), Arvid Nelson (ZeroKiller)

Artist: Gabriel Ba (UA), Clement Sauve (Pantheon), Matt Camp (ZeroK)

Candy bars for Band!! OH OW GOD MY FACE

Ah, FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. The only holiday significant enough to be spelled in all caps. After Easter, Christmas, Candlemas and Arbor Day, it’s the most important holiday of the year. All the loot of a holiday without the pesky responsibilities. It does have longer lines than most holidays, though…

Tonight, I’ve got a bee in my bonnet over a Dark Horse freebie. Three stories, Umbrella Academy, Pantheon City, and ZeroKiller are all crammed into one of FREE COMIC BOOK DAY’S ubiquitous multi-title no-charge comics. The boys in Oregon have been promo-ing the heck out of The Umbrella Academy for months, but it’s Umbrella Academy’s backup stories that really shine.

ZeroKiller gets a mere six pages, but what a six it is. A likeable hero (who isn’t white—as you’ve probably noticed, this is a sad rarity in comics) with bad@$$ moves and a soft side, an apocalyptic setting, two daring rescues…what’s not to like? It’s hard to know anything about the series’ plot with only six pages, but my oh my do they entertain. ZeroKiller is Escape From New York with more attitude and a better protagonist. Here’s hoping it lives up to its promise…

Pantheon City is a story about a runaway (or escaped?) robot with dynamite art by Clement Sauve. Sauve’s pacing and layout are wonderful, and his style is a more polished version of Chris Bachalo. Writer Ron Marz drops a few hints at the story’s direction (there’s a brilliant little Isaac Asimov pun) and keeps the reader’s interest with witty, realistic dialogue.

Makes Tim Burton look like Don Bluth.

Umbrella Academy looks intriguing, but what keeps one from saying it’s another generic hero-team storyline? The characters are interesting, but the eccentric powers seem to be the result of a writer who’s trying too hard to hold our attention. The action, however, is solid, and there’s an element rare in hero-teams: teamwork. Still, the bizarre pacing and strange dialogue leave the series with adjustments to be made if it wants to be the big-guns Dark Horse’s marketing department says it is.  

Thankfully, all three yarns stay true to the Dark Horse ethos: pensive, a little dark, and definitely outside the mainstream. What’s even nicer is that one of them ( Pantheon City) looks like it might (emphasis on the might) be violence-free, but still interesting. Dark Horse is perennially plagued by their penchant for perversity, and a story that avoids Sin City or Berserk-style violence could show readers that DH is ready to move up a notch and put story before sensation.

Bravo, boys—don’t let us down.  

Worth the money? If you don’t think so, look up skinflint in the dictionary. Admire the picture of yourself.