The loose cannon Grifter and no-nonsense Marc Slayton must join forces in order to save a pair of high-ranking government officials who have been kidnapped. Both have their own reasons. One is begrudgingly doing this mission in return for information. The other has motives of revenge, redemption and romance.
Together Grifter and Slayton and a team of special operatives head down to an undisclosed South America island to a defunct research station. It's here that the sins of the US government have reared their ugly head. It seems that the whole facility is full of human-animal hybrids. It's like a hi-tech Island of Dr. Moreau and the head of this group of freaks, known as the Kindred, is someone thought long dead from Grifter and Slayton's days with Team 7.
I think that's a fairly decent recollection of the 4-issue miniseries from 1994. I don't really understand a lot of the backstory or insider jokes and Easter eggs that float around in this story. But I'm not really sure I want to either.
For the life of my, I don't remember where or how I got my hands on this book. It just ended up in my collection somehow. My collection has been known as the spot where other's old collections come to find new life. So, I probably got this as part of a donation from someone looking to unload their collection. Being a book that contained a whole story in just one volume, I probably decided to hold on to this until I felt like reading it. And recently, that day arrived.
With a slew of talent behind this miniseries, I'm really disappointed. Jim Lee (X-Men), Brandon Choi (Deathblow) and Sean Ruffner (Backlash) wrote the script. Pencils were by Brett Booth (Teen Titans) and Chris Eilopoulos (Cosmic Commandos) was the letterer. And yet this whole thing stunk!
I'm going to try really hard to be fair to this book as it's my first encounter with the vintage Image universe and almost all of these characters. But, my gracefulness can only go so far...
I think 3 writers was 2 too many. The dialogue was full of action movie cliches (and bad action movies at that!) and a lot of the plot didn't make sense. I still don't understand how nobody knew who kidnapped those government officials but managed to go to the correct island. Aren't there like there's hundreds or even thousands of islands off the Atlantic coast of South America?
The artwork was hideous. Brett Booth must have just graduated from the Rob Liefeld school of art before tackling this book. Body proportions are exaggerated. Everybody has the same face with a widow's peak and really scrunched up faces and those beady eyes. I hated it!
At least the lettering was decent.
I don't think it needs saying but The Kindred will not stay a part of my comics collection. It's heading to a used book story for some trade credit. Hopefully, I can get something decent out of this stinker.
Not Worth Consuming!
Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.
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