Skybound's Creature from the Black Lagoon by Dan Watters and Ram V

[Gaius]

First issue was pretty good

[thwhtGuardian]

Dan Watters and Ram V's take on the Creature of the Black Lagoon succeeds in every way that the earlier Image adaptation of Dracula by James Tynion IV failed: it's fresh and exciting while still feeling recognizable as the original. Now, perhaps I'm being too harsh on Tynion's earlier work, by it's very nature adapting Dracula is going to necessarily harder as it's been made into a film purportedly over 200 times and has nearly as many comic book adaptations which obviously means finding a new angle is going to be tough. On the other hand the Gillman while certainly visually iconic as a Hollywood Monster only had three films originally by Universal, the latter two of which are little known or seen, a cameo in Monstersquad and the recent film The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro so as such has much more room for exploration and Watters and Ram V do just that, moving the creature to Peru instead of Brazil and adding in a plot of a reporter who is tracking down a serial killer who drowns their prey who just so happens to encounter the creature. Their's a great feeling of intrigue and true crime that is completely new but the myth of an aquatic off shoot of man remains and his mode of killing being similar to the serial killer brings some interesting comparisons that I'm excited to see developed

[Riv86672]

This was a really solid first issue.
The story was well paced and the human characters were strong enough to carry the narrative so the Gillman could provide the money shot(s). The art was well suited to the subject matter; not too cartoony OR hyper realistic, it set a mood and got me involved. Looking forward to more.

[Gaius]

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16. Universal Monsters the Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives #1 (Of 4)