After reading Elephantmen #1 I was excited to find a comic that wasn’t DC or Marvel that I could really get excited about. This wasn’t a superhero book with a Crisis or a Civil War; it’s not about killing characters to sell big events. It’s not a licensed property which most of the non DC and Marvel stuff I read is. Don’t get me wrong, Civil War is great and Crisis was good, but with all the tie-ins and hype that went into these events its good to read something new. Elephantmen #1 was that for me.
Elephantmen is a mix of sci-fi and noir judging by the first two issues. The first issue was a feel good story about Ebony interacting with a human child. The issue really played on the prejudice the Elephantmen face in this future world. Elephantmen #2 goes back into the same aspect and shows the prejudice in a different form. In the one story of this issue you have Elijah; a crocodile who is going on a satellite radio show which is either a rip-off or a tribute to Howard Stern, can’t tell which. As you probably guessed this shock jock is not exactly an endearing person especially to Elijah.
The DJ is pretty much Howard Stern all the way, doing the same things the Howard’s fans find funny. He asks Elijah about the Elephantmen and attempts to be serious, and then he proceeds to berate and ridicule the guest. As you can probably imagine an eight foot human/crocodile hybrid isn’t going to stand for this.
The other story, which I think probably happens first in continuity is a fight between Hipflask (a hippo) and Elijah (the crocodile). Which I thought was funny considering the discovery channel showdown that was on sometime last year. This was a fight that starts off on land but ends up underwater in the sewer somewhere. The interesting thing about this story is that there is no dialogue or even any inner monologue. The entire story is told using excerpts from the bible, more importantly the Book of Job. Its uses the parts that talk about Leviathan and Behemoth, comparing the characters of Hipflask and Elijah to the biblical counterparts, God is even credited as a writer on the one cover. I found this to be a very unique way to tell a story. Some people might find it blasphemous or controversial but I think it’s just a cool way to use the bible to tell a story or to tell a part of the bible using a comic, depending how you look at it.
So far Richard Starkings and company have done a great job and I look forward to reading more from them. This issue was just as good as the first issue, so I don’t have much to complain about. My one wish for this series though is that we get some more explanation on the history and origins of the Elephantmen. This should be a major plot in the overall series but other than the flashbacks in #1 it hasn’t really been mentioned. Then again its only issue #2 so I’m sure it’ll be covered a lot more in upcoming issues.
