Kaijumax #4

Kaijumax #4
Released by: Oni Press
Released on: July 15th, 2015.
Written And Illustrated by: Zander Cannon
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Need to get caught up? Zonn arrived at the prison despite the best efforts of the Mecha-Zon and nobody is happy. Ape-Whale's son, Whoofy, has met a young boy who somehow managed to dream himself to the planet while Jeong, the guard, is having some serious doubts about his career choice as of late.

This issue starts at the waterfall that serves as a shower - Zonn introduces himself to Electrogar, who is hesitant to befriend the new arrival. And understandably so, as trouble seems to follow him. But they talk… about life on the outside, family and about trust. It's a surprisingly human conversation for two monsters to have, but it works (moments like this are a big part of what makes this series as awesome as it is) - and then Zonn shows his true colors. We all know what happens in prison showers, right? Poor Electrogar.

Meanwhile, Gupta is peddling contraband uranium… until he's confronted by Zlook. He wants a high and Gupta knows he's not allowed to give it to him - his mom ordered it so and Gupta stands his ground on it. On the other side of the yard, Whoofy talks to his new pal, the little boy. They play hide and seek and then the boy shows Whoofy some Royota's Ivy, a plant that could easily harm Whoofy's old man. The boy suggests they play a game and slip some into Ape-Whale's food.

Back near the waterfall, Electrogar is getting checked out by Doctor Zhang. When he remembers what happened to him, he gets sick and as they clean up, Zhangs tells the inmate why she's in the business of helping people by telling him a story from her childhood where she encountered her first giant monster.

Just as Jeong breaks up a yard fight, the alarm goes off and he and the rest of the guards are called off to deal with a 'medical emergency.' He and Gupta head off to deal with and find Zlook O.D.'d on uranium. Gupta knows this is trouble… his mom is going to want payback and look to him for it if Zlook dies.

Zander Cannon continues to hit it out of the park with this series. Yes, there's a very definite sense of humor and yeah the slang that the characters speak in will make giant monster movie fans geek out with all the different references but this works. Cannon has taken dozens of movie and pop culture influences and channeled them through his own skewed vision to create something wholly original. This is not a Godzilla movie knock off nor is it a comic book version of Oz but you can see how stuff like that worked its way into this series.

Amazingly enough, what makes this book work so well is how human the monsters are in terms of how they are written. You really start to feel for the characters as the comic plays out and their different back stories all play a part in the 'now' of the series. At the same time, they're monsters and they act like monsters, they do what monsters like to do and they think like you'd imagine giant monsters would think. The fact that all of this is played straight at first seems to contrast with the slightly cartoonish style that cannon employs in the book but once you get used to it, it's hard to imagine the book looking any different than it does. This is a great read, one of the strangest but most compelling new books of the year. Don't miss out on it.

Oh, and be sure to read the letters column and the capsule review for Super Inframan in the back pages. You'll be glad you did.