Writers: Dan Watters & Ram V
Artist: Matthew Roberts
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: DC Hopkins
Cover Artists: Matthew Roberts & Dave Stewart; Francis Manapul; Dani & Brad Simpson; Stephanie Pepper; Christian Ward
Publisher: Image
Price: $4.99
Release Date: May 29, 2024
Journalist Kate Marsden was on the trail of a hardened killer. Then she saw something she couldn’t comprehend. As Kate fled, she slipped while crossing a river. The current sucked her down. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't fight free. Has the Amazon claimed another victim? Let's strap on our masks and flippers, leap into Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives #2, and find out!
Story
The Marine Corps kicked out Darwin Collier for violent conduct. Police suspect him guilty of seven drownings. He tried to make Kate his eighth victim. Kate tracked his movements to Peru, where he purchased items from a local pharmacy. But then Collier left town, and Kate couldn’t find him.
Lately, boaters have pulled bodies from the river. Kate followed a local man who picked up the latest victim and transported it to the river. As Kate watched a boat carry it away, she heard a noise. She thought perhaps it was Collier. Instead, a strange creature met her gaze.
In Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives #2, Kate awakens in a house with an IV drip in her arm. These days, she fights the urge to sleep. Dreams follow, and they often return to the time Collier tried to drown her. The attempt left Kate feeling violated. She is strung out on amphetamines and can’t bear to let anyone touch her. She also suffers from Anoxic Brain Damage due to brain cell death from lack of oxygen.
But Kate isn’t frightened now. She remembers how Christiano found her by the river and that Christiano’s employer, Dr Edwin Thompson, took her in. She goes to Edwin’s laboratory, where she learns the drowning victim had black sand in his lungs. Edwin believes a mythical creature killed the drowning victim. Although Kate doesn’t want to admit it, she glimpsed the monster. But she's a journalist, grounded in accepted truth and facts. So, Kate asks Edwin to take her to the Black Lagoon. She must know she is not slowly losing grip on reality.
Kate Marsden claims she wants justice in Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives #2. Like any victim, she struggles with anger from Collier's savage attack. But Kate isn't in the United States anymore. The law doesn't work the same way in Peru. Her chances of utilizing the Peruvian legal system or getting Collier extradited to the United States (assuming she could capture the former Marine) are low. Besides, she suffers from Anoxic Brain Damage. Why should anyone trust her judgment when she's unsure she can trust her memories and perceptions?
Art
Kate Marsden awakens on a cushioned rattan couch. Pulling the IV from her hand, she ignores the tropical potted plants and the jungle outside the wall of windows and heads down a hall toward Edwin's lab. Clad in surgical gear, Edwin speaks into a microphone connected to an 8 Track Tape Recorder. As smoke rises from a pipe near the table, he cuts into the body with a scalpel. Wrinkles navigate his face and neck like rivers on a map. Kate's straggly hair frames her confused expression as her wide eyes behold the dark granules on the bloody blade. Then the wind whips her hair as she sits near Christiano at the back of the boat while Edwin sits upfront, staring grimly at the jungle ahead.
Dave Stewart applies a loaded palette to Matthew Roberts’ realistic art in Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives #2. Stewart paints Edwin’s lab in pale greens, blues, beiges, and grays, while Edwin’s surgical gear, lab surfaces, and a hanging screen reflect the more vibrant greens glimpsed through the tall windows. The white drowning victim looks lavender in closeups, while dark red shows within rents from whatever also tore off a portion of the man’s ear. The lavender reminds Kate of two amorphous circles shining in the darkness. The twin circles evoke jellyfish, floating wherever the currents take them. But Kate knows they're not.
DC Hopkins carves uppercase black letters into white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes. The font grows bold for intonation, swells for elevated voices, and rarely shrinks. Spotting the man who nearly killed her sends green words into a yellow balloon. Darker green words emerge from the Burnt Umber lips enclosing a mouth filled with sharpened teeth, while yellow words signal a hail of gunfire in Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives #2.
Thanks to Universal Studios, Skybound, and Image Comics for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Kate Marsden grapples with local legend, an obsessed scientist, drug traffickers, a serial killer, and the limits of her exhausted body and damaged mind in Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives #2.
Rating 9.8/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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