Zombies and mutated monsters? Check. Evil mad scientists? Check. Idiotic dialogue? Oh, yeah.
Resident Evil: Fire and Ice
Publisher: Wildstorm
Writers: Ted Adams and Kris Oprisko
Artists: Lee Bermejo, Shawn Crystal, Carlos D’Anda, and others
Cover: Lee Bermejo
Summary: Timed for release with the all-new Resident Evil 5 video game and limited to 5,000 copies! Umbrella agents attempt to dominate the world with their Zombie Virus, and S.T.A.R.S.’ Charlie Team is the only force capable of standing in their way. But are they prepared to battle an entire circus full of zombie-fied freaks? Collecting the 4-issue miniseries (for the first time!) plus stories from WildStorm’s RESIDENT EVIL magazine, featuring art by Lee Bermejo (JOKER HC)!
Review: The release of Resident Evil 5 last month continued the action twist that RE4 introduced, along with its parasite-infected “zombies.” Even though Leon Kennedy’s romp through remote Spanish landscapes dotted with brainwashed Ganados refreshed the series, many were unhappy with the departure from classic Resident Evil gameplay. Well, good news. Wildstorm’s Resident Evil: Fire and Ice follows the original style of the survivor horror video game that started it all.
The amazing Lee Bermejo, who illustrated the highly recommended graphic novel JOKER, provides some of the art for Fire and Ice—a four-issue mini-series following the anti-Umbrella efforts of S.T.A.R.S.’ Charlie Team. The story begins with what Resident Evil does best: a slaying fest of zombie animal and circus folk (uhm). Shortly afterwards, the team splits up and heads to Alaska and Mexico in order to hunt down and destroy possible Umbrella hotspots. However, bad luck infects their mission even before they leave headquarters, since their newest recruit, Raquel Fields, has literally been infected. By the T-Virus. Well, either that or flesh-eating bacteria, since the writers drop that conflict by the end as either a purposely misleading distraction or just sloppiness.
Sadly, that’s exactly what drags the book down: old school Resident Evil stupidity. Although there are some obvious blunders—including Jill’s sudden but perhaps foreshadowing momentary switch to blonde hair for no reason—the majority of the idiocy lies in the dialogue and, centrally, the characters. And mostly the good guys. Go team. While the technique might be intentional in the hopes of maintaining that nostalgic RE feel, the last time I checked fans play Resident Evil for the shooting of icky and nasty things (and Wesker)—not because we hold a special place in our hearts for the characters and their engrossing character interactions.
On the other rotting hand, the comic boasts hordes of juicy references that will make zombie geeks giggle and long-lived RE gamers smile as they longingly remember wisdom about herbs and ammo conservation, Barry Burton inside jokes, those skippable but oh-so-insightful Umbrella documents, and lots more. Virtually all the unpleasant turns of fate might be contributed to character screw-ups, making the dialogue stiff and worthy of a good eye-gouging, but at least the comic proves true to the original series.
For that reason, Fire and Ice earns a read by any Resident Evil fan. It does sport a bit of a heftier price tag than your average trade (although you can pick it up for about $16 on Amazon, so quit whining), but the 256-page paperback crams in a bunch of extra stories that recap RE1-2 as well as new additions.
Rating: 4/5
May 1st, 2009 at 4:25 pm
“On the other rotting hand…” I love you Steph.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Hahaha!
June 1st, 2010 at 6:34 am
Ooowee! The writing for this graphic novel is AWFUL! I never considered it might be on purpose nd I’m a fan of the Resident Evil franchise. The plots have more holes than swiss cheese a rat has gnawed on! I thought at first it was written by a 13 year old, but if it is actually supposed to be that bad then… well, I don’t know what to think anymore! haha! It reminds me of some of the text from the old 8-bit JRPGs. Ya know that hilarious “Engrish” stuff? It was actually hard to follow from one panel to the next, as you are constantly asking yourself, “Wait! What the Hell just happened?!” The dialouge between the characters also reminded me of some of that really awful Halo machinima that has been spawning particularly out of England for whatever reason. Their is good machinima, bad machnima, and there’s British machinima! haha! A 4/5 review for this GN seems on the high end, though it does have a lot of content and some decent artwork here and there. I’d have to re-read it with a grain of salt before I’d give it any higher than a 2/5. Good review though by the reviewer!