Joint Review – Alice Cooper Vs. Chaos #1 (Dynamite)

Publisher: Dynamite
Writer(s): Tim Seeley, Jim Terry
Art: Jim Terry, Aikau Olivia
Release Date: 9^th Sept. 2015

Ceej says…

Okay, so let’s get the obvious out of the way right from the get-go… this comic is absolutely insane. Like, seriously. It actually seems to revel in it, throwing all these weird and wonderful creatures, characters and rock stars together into a swirling vortex of heavy metal weirdness. I’ll fully admit that I’m not particularly well-versed in the Chaos universe, but this first issue mercifully takes at least a little time to allow the reader to get at least partially acquainted with the likes of Evil Ernie, Chastity and The Chosen.

Storyline-wise, this first issue is a bit like a juddering machine gun, hitting the reader with round after round of weirdness, gore and power chords without giving them a moment to regain their bearings. We have Chastity hunting down a giant obese vampire and losing a little of herself in the process, The Chosen coming back from a wild night out to an ominous warning from one of their own, and Evil Ernie… well… I’m not really sure what the hell was going on with Ernie, to be honest. Some sort of waking nightmare about his father, and there was a girl, oh, and a little smiley face driving a combine harvester.

Yeah, like I said, insane.

Oh, and there’s Alice Cooper too. Obviously. Demon slayer by night, rock legend by day, and now seemingly squarely in the crosshairs of a lot of different people. Seeley is a writer whose sensibilities are custom made for this sort of title; think of this as the crazy world of Hack/Slash given an extra injection of weirdness and a little added dash of heavy metal insanity. There’s humour throughout, too, and a real ‘B-Movie’ vibe to the story that bodes extremely well for the rest of the series as it moves forwards.

The artwork is provided by Seeley’s long-time friend and Sundowners co-collaborator Jim Terry, who displays the same knack for crazy monster design and pleasingly retro visuals here that made the Dark Horse superhero horror series such an absolute joy to read. His work is given an unusually glossy appearance courtesy of Aiku Oliva’s colours, and while it doesn’t necessarily hurt the aesthetic for a comic like this, I definitely preferred the more wasted-out, subtle approach of Terry’s Sundowners artwork. That said, subtlety is most definitely off the table here, with exploding vampires, giant snakes and weird glowing monsters of all shapes and sizes very much the order of the day.

Overall, while I’m still not entirely sure what the hell I just read, I know that I loved every damn second of it, and with a storyline premise that all-but guarantees things are only going to get weirder as this series progresses, you can count me in for this gloriously insane crossover event for as long as I can keep my head from exploding.

Rating: 4/5.

Martin says…

In this latest crossover from Dynamite, Tim Seeley and Jim Terry pit Alice Cooper against figures from the revitalised Chaos Comics universe. The general premise concerns an attempt by Purgatori to kill the ‘Lord of Nightmares’ by coercing vampire assassin Chastity into assisting in his demise, before turning her attention to The Chosen: a team of assorted mythical creatures disguised in human form.

To say the book is overwhelming would be an understatement. Artist Jim Terry assaults the senses with large, amped-up characters (including a fantastic likeness of Alice himself), his exquisitely exaggerated style mirroring the period in which these creations were conceived. The level of his work is consistent throughout the issue, as is the suitably bombastic colour work of Aikau Olivia, but the first few pages featuring Alice’s battle with a Nitemoor demon are spectacular, providing a truly absorbing hook into the story,

Whilst impressive from a visual standpoint, the story itself was not quite so, and I felt it became a little cluttered the more the issue wore on. The sheer amount of characters and plot threads introduced in this opening issue felt stifling, especially for someone such as me, who had no prior knowledge of the Chaos Comics universe. Aside from a brief appearance by Alice at the beginning and on the final page, the issue is primarily devoted to figures from Chaos, and I quickly became lost in a sea of questions unable to connect with any of the characters on a meaningful level.

This is not to say that Alice Cooper Vs. Chaos can’t become a success, clearly there’s a complex story brewing here, but it’s contrary to my expectation based on the title. A compelling first third and excellent artwork aside, this opening issue might be a little too niche for the casual reader, and may be enjoyed more by fans of the Chaos Universe.

Rating: 3/5.