Infestation #2

April 29, 2011

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art: David Messina
Art Assist: Claudia Balboni
Inks: Gaetano Carlucci
Colorist: ScarletGothica
Letterer: Robbie Robbins
Cover: David Messina
Editor: Chris Ryall & Tom Waltz
Publisher: IDW Publishing

The Infestation has come back home. The Undermind back in the world of Covert Vampire Operations is calling back the aspects of itself that infested the worlds of TransFormers, Star Trek, G.I. Joe and the Ghostbusters, building its power for one more bid to take over this world. But at least one member of CVO is willing to go to any lengths to stop that from happening. I’m a little disappointed with the end of this crossover, to be honest with you. The four different worlds into which the zombies reached don’t really have any impact on the conclusion to the storyline. I didn’t really expect to see Optimus Prime and Peter Venkman leaping through the dimensional portal and kicking ass alongside one another, but it seems like there should have been something gained by the Undermind through its contact with the other worlds. Instead, the four crossovers feel simply superfluous, without having any real impact on the world of the CVO. I am glad to see lasting implications for CVO itself, as the new series spinning out of this crossover seems like it will have been very heavily influenced by the crossover. If you’re not really a fan of the CVO franchise, though, it doesn’t give you much to cling to. Messina’s artwork isn’t bad at all, fortunately. The final confrontation looks really cool, with great color effects to help with the whole interdimensional doomsday thing. In the long run, the crossover was fun, but it doesn’t feel… significant. And that’s a shame.

Rating: 7/10

Infestation #1

February 3, 2011

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art: David Messina & Elena Casagrande
Inks: Gaetano Carlucci
Colorist: ScarletGothica
Letterer: Robbie Robbins
Cover: Gabriel Rodriguez (Cover A); John K. Snyder (Cover B)
Editor: Chris Ryall & Tom Waltz
Publisher: IDW Publishing

IDW Publishing is finally bringing us their first-ever crossover, bringing together two of the company’s original properties and putting them on a collision course with four of their licensed properties. It’s an unprecedented sort of story, and the first issue is a lot of fun.

In the world of CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations, a team of vampires protect the human race from supernatural threats. They run into the greatest threat of all, however, when an interdimensional portal leads them to a world where a zombie plague not only is sweeping the human race, but has somehow gained the ability to infect electronic entities as well. That’s right: it’s the world of Zombies Vs. Robots. As CVO attempts to hold the line against the infestation, one of their own gets overwhelmed by the plague.

If you know anything about this series ahead of time, the end isn’t too much of a surprise. The dimensional rift splits, sending both the infected CVO member and the plague itself into four different dimensions, worlds we’ve seen in comics, movies and TV shows for years: TransFormers, Star Trek, G.I. Joe and the Ghostbusters. It’s a screwy idea, but we don’t quite get into that this month. The whole book is taken up with the CVO vs. Zombies routine, which is actually pretty good. I’ve never read either of the two original IDW titles that lead into this book, but the first issue makes me very much inclined to give CVO in particular a try. The concept of an “undermind” – a sort of controlling consciousness that propels the zombies and gains power the more undead there are – is a clever one that makes this story more than just your standard zombie fare. Abnett and Lanning, the masters of the cosmic adventure, bring a nice amount of horror story to this book. The assorted artists do have a solid, unified style, one that serves both the horror elements and the sci-fi.

I loved the idea of bringing these four properties together for such a strange crossover to begin with. I’m really glad it got off to a good start.

Rating: 7/10