TERROR INC. (Marvel)
Written by David Lapham, drawn by Patrick Zircher
Collects Terror Inc. Vol. 2 #1-5
When Marvel’s Terror Inc. came out from the adult-oriented MAX line in 2007, I had never read an appearance of the character, was not a fan of Lapham’s (haven’t read Stray Bullets, but HATED his run on Detective Comics) and yet, I really dug the book. It reminded me of the days when Vertigo was the home of weird, wild and violent versions of DC Characters no one really cared about. The idea is that a long time ago, this dude got cursed with eternal life, but his limbs would rot. As a bonus, he could get rid of the old parts and his body would accept new ones, integrate them into his body and read their memories. Nowadays he works as an assassin with his helper Mrs. Primo. After a lengthy flashback sequence explaining where he came from, Terror gets a job that turns out to be a set up benefiting a terrorist group. The rest of the story follows our hero as he eviscerates his enemies, absorbing more parts along the way than I can count.

Lapham does a good job of keeping the story tight and action-packed with lots of blood and gore to keep me interested. Plus, Zircher’s art in this book is just SICK. He does a great job of drawing everything from the monster hero to the super-hot Mrs. Primo and elaborate machines to intricately detailed guts. I liked the guy on Cable/Deadpool (a really under-rated bookto my mind) but he really got to flex some muscles on Terror Inc.

Even though it’s filled with blood, guts and curses, the book actually feels more like a big screen action movie with aspects from other genres. If I was a producer trying to get this movie made, I’d get Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the guys who did Crank, Crank 2 and Gamer) to direct and see how they can do an action/horror movie. My only problem with the book is that Terror kept saying that the curse was in the arm Terror keeps from his long-dead wife, which doesn’t make sense with the story. Maybe I missed something. Anyone else read this book? Thoughts?