Comics Features

REVIEW: Bigfoot: Sword of the Earthman #3

From the barren wastelands of the Martian deserts to the vast sunken catacombs, the Earthman’s name shall be known! In Action Lab‘s Bigfoot: Sword of the Earthman #3, we find our titular hero and his companion, Castor, in the midst of a legion of swarming, bloodthirsty moth-vampires. In the heat of the skirmish, a massive explosion set off by barrels of beacon fire causes the ground beneath them to split open, sending the unlikely duo deep underground where they are taken captive by a subterranean army. Once more bound in shackles and captured as slaves, the two find themselves in the presence of the sexy queen of the Martian underground and mother of the moth-vampires, Malona the Damned. Of course, it just so happens that within her possession is the ever coveted Heart of the Sun.

After a brief explanation of the queen’s backstory through the use of one of the most oh-so effective means of storytelling (rhyming verses) Malona reveals her plans for her two new guests and it turns out that they mostly involve getting herself some sweet sweet Bigfoot lovin’… And handing out just a wee bit of death to Castor. (Not too bad all thing considered, amirite? Who is down for some Martian snu-snu?) After another display of Bigfoot’s awesome might, our hero manages to free himself and his partner from the queen’s chains, only this time Castor has finally claimed the prize he was looking for and Bigfoot is swinging around one hefty sword.

Although Bigfoot: Sword of the Earthman #3 has still been an entertaining read, I must admit that this hasn’t quite been my favorite issue so far. While I give Josh Henaman and Andy Taylor credit for expanding the Martian world and trying to give it more depth with a small fragment of its pre-existing history, this Malona of the Damned storyline seems to be a bit lacking in originality and doesn’t quite reel in much excitement. I can understand the queen’s desire to mate with Bigfoot, both for story purposes and given the fact that he is a gigantic hulking man-beast with dreamy locks of hair all over, but what really took things down a notch for me was Castor’s poetic account of Malona’s past. With the way Henaman has been progressing this story thus far as this bad ass tale of a brute warrior on a mysterious new world, the use of a nursery rhyme type of story telling sort of makes things feel a bit, for the lack of a better word, cheesy. I only mention this because thus far, this series has been pretty fun to read and scoring some good points for its originality and action packed goodness. It would be a shame to see it need to refer back to something as overly used as iambic pentameter in order to move the story along.

And while the story seemed to have a bit of a road bump, the artwork had a minor bit of a rough patch as well. Overall, Taylor’s depictions of Bigfoot’s adventures have been consistent and have also done a really great job at expressing this series’ rough-edged feeling. Although at times some of the artwork in this issue seems to have become oversimplified and too much detail is lost including body forms and facial expressions. It causes the panels to feel a bit cartoon-y. This is particularly evident in some of the wide angled scenes where some of the characters look less humanoid and more like flying squirrels. There is a fine line between simplification and over-simplification and moving forward, I hope that Taylor’s work doesn’t veer too far into the latter.

While issue 3 may not have been the strongest Bigfoot sighting yet, this book is still successful in progressing the story and adding some key elements that our heroes will need moving forward. What will Castor do now that he has the Heart of the Sun in his clasp? Will Malona seek out revenge on her would-be ape-mate? How much ass will Bigfoot now be able to kick with that bitchin’ new sword? We’ll just have to find out next time!

So what did you think Bigfoot: Sword of the Earthman #3? Did you have a different opinion about the issue? Head on over to the comic’s website here for more of the ape-man’s Martian tales and don’t forget to sound off in the comments or send us your thoughts on Twitter!

About the author

Jesse Acevedo

Hi there, I'm Jesse. When I'm not writing about comics, I'm a designer, illustrator, and occasional pervader of shenanigans. Nothing in this world makes me feel more passionate than comics. I didn't choose this life, this life chose me! So join me, won't you? And let's talk about some really cool stuff!