Black Fox #2

Posted: Tuesday, June 19, 2001
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Black Fox #2 Creator(s): Corwin M. Glenn
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: $1.00 (US)

The title character in this comic stalks the streets of the inner city looking for criminals while thinking to himself in grim prose. You've seen this sort of thing before I'm sure, but that doesn't mean you can't appreciate some more. As things progress we learn that Blackfox seems to posses super strength which he uses to good effect beating up a bunch of local thugs. While this encounter was easy, he finds fighting the Grand Master Ninja a tougher proposition.

Later on we learn that Joe, an old friend of Blackfox, is a gang boss who holds a grudge and the fact that his wife is always on the phone to Blackfox isn't helping matters. So the fighting continues. It's rough and tough with a carnage level that is high. Along the way Corwin throws in some interesting dialogue, rough in places but the street talk and musings have a mix of humour and dignity that sticks in the mind.

But, I hear you say, what does the art look like? Well, Corwin puts in a lot of work on the characters, with attention paid to muscle definition and costume design. There is the occasional distorted pose but in all the figure work stands up quite well. Unfortunately the backgrounds don't fare so well, with some very out of scale compositions intruding on things, and I can't help wishing Corwin would use some thicker pens when inking to add weight to the layouts.

There are some interesting features to this comic that make it possible to momentarily forget the high level of violence on display here. Readers who get a kick out of Frank Miller's work might find this to their liking and the rest of us can't help but admit that this sort of thing is entertaining in small doses.

In a Word: Physical.



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