REVIEW: Kneel Before Zod #5
Kneel Before Zod #5, “Fire Falls” sets Zod on a new course as he’s recovering from injuries sustained from last issue’s climax. Finding himself searching for new purpose, Zod seizes an opportunity to acquire a new army in which to lead.
The standard cover is by Jason Shawn Alexander. Beaten and shackled with a “Z” carved on his chest, Zod appears imprisoned and tortured by unknown jailers. The painted style of art accentuates Zod’s raw and gritty situation. A clever use of lighting adds a trick to his eyes as they glow red with fury or as a mere reflection of the lights within his prison. All in all, you can really see why Alexander was chosen for the covers of the series through this piece alone.
Lucio Parrillo’s variant is a great depiction of Zod and Jor-El squaring off to brawl. Both of them sporting their classic Silver Age attire, Parrillo instantly shows us how long their rivalry has spanned. Zod’s memories of Jor, or possibly his actual ghost, has been plaguing the general the entire series and this cover is the perfect representation of Zod’s struggle with his inner demon.
The variant by John Giang is another spectacular realistic piece of Zod tearing through something or someone with his heat vision. Zod’s passion and voracity is on full display as debris from his target flies past him. One thing’s for sure, if you can only afford one cover this month, you’re faced with three fantastic choices and one difficult decision.
Artist Dan McDaid and Colorist David Baron continue being the interior art team for the series. Their visuals are ridiculously outrageous in the best ways possible. The shear imagination they’ve put into the alien species and environments are next level and they pull it all off without it looking hokey. They even give Zod a new look that’s absolutely frightening and grotesque. I really hope these guys have had as much fun creating the look and feel of the series as their work would suggest.
Joe Casey, lettered by Troy Peteri, unleash Zod on an unassuming prison transport in Kneel Before Zod #5. Taking advantage of his near comatose state, Casey gives us more insight into Zod’s childhood along with his first meeting of Jor-El. Waking prematurely from a healing stasis, Zod assumes he’s been taken captive and acts accordingly. He soon realizes he’s on a prison transport vessel and seizes the opportunity to recruit all the inmates to his newly dubbed Legion of Zod. After everything that happened on New Kandor, it seems the story has possibly found the vessel in which to drive the last half of this limited series.
(8/10) I continually find myself impressed with the art of this book. It’s such a love letter to the Space Opera genre and yet maintains a uniqueness all its own. The last page of this issue feels like an end to the story rollercoaster the last few issues had us on, but I could just be hopefully optimistic. Zod did feel a little out of character bearing his wrath at the beings who saved his life, but he has just lost everything he cared about so it’s a small thing to discount.
