Here’s one thing about comic book sequels to movies. Look, I know you can do things in a comic book you can’t do in a movie, but respect the level of reality in the source. You shouldn’t all of a sudden have a giant monster just because Somerville can draw it badly.

In other words, Climate of Fear kind of limps to its finish. Arcudi gets in a good final moment, something not as good as the Thing movie, but a tonal homage.

And most of the issue isn’t bad. Arcudi’s pacing is great. He takes his time establishing and following through. He just can’t get away with a giant monster.

Instead of a sequel to The Thing, it becomes an awful fifties radiation monster movie with bad special effects.

There is more of that sparse third person narration. Arcudi uses it sparingly and well.

I nearly recommend this comic.

CREDITS

Writer, John Arcudi; penciller, Jim Somerville; inker, Robert Jones; colorist, Matt Webb; letterer, Richard Starkings; editor, Randy Stradley; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Arcudi gets to the cliffhanger I imagine readers had been waiting for since the end of the movie. I won’t spoil—which is not to recommend the series, I really can’t with Somerville’s artwork. He ruins the cliffhanger. It looks like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon, not a horror comic.

But Arcudi tries some different things this issue—he’s got third person narration, location tags, and some close third person examining the female doctor. It’s not exactly insightful—she’s got the hots for MacReady (there’s a hilarious line about her not knowing MacReady’s first name—it wasn’t in the movie either). But Arcudi’s trying something with the comic, he’s being ambitious with a licensed property. Doesn’t happen often.

As the series goes, I’m less excited to see how the cliffhanger resolves (since it was inevitable) than to see how Arcudi develops the series in terms of narrative devices.

CREDITS

Writer, John Arcudi; penciller, Jim Somerville; inker, Robert Jones; colorist, Matt Webb; letterer, Richard Starkings; editor, Randy Stradley; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

It’s shocking how much better Climate of Fear reads when it’s not about MacReady and Childs (from the movie).

Arcudi continues—for the majority of the issue—his version of The Thing, only in a warm climate with a female scientist as the protagonist. It’s mostly a talking heads book, with the tensions rising among the people as they get more and more scared.

Somerville is still a bad artist, so the book must succeed because of Arcudi’s scripting. He twists the tension tighter and tighter and the explosion, cinematic and bloody, works great.

Even his immediate follow-up is good. But then MacReady comes back into it. Or, actually, doesn’t, because Somerville doesn’t know how to establish the absence of someone in his composition.

Once the confusing moments are aside, the issue has a big chase and then has a big cliffhanger.

Unfortunately, Somerville’s art ruins the cliffhanger’s effectiveness.

CREDITS

Writer, John Arcudi; penciller, Jim Somerville; inker, Robert Jones; colorist, Matt Webb; letterer, Richard Starkings; editor, Randy Stradley; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.