By Cat Wyatt

There was a lot of ground to cover in the last issue of Graveland. The antagonists (the giants) had to be introduced, as did the dire circumstances they brought with them (it turns out that our cities aren’t designed to be stomped on, go figure), and the steps the government was taking to try and bring them down (which up until this point have been unsuccessful).

The heroes sent out in the last issue managed to take out a couple of giants, it’s true, but they also didn’t survive the fight. That means that there are still giants out there (I’m uncertain of the numbers, but I also get the impression that even a few would be too many for us to handle), and the last line of defense is down. The options are limited. We know that any bomb that can take out a giant will likewise take out the city the giant is currently occupying. That’s not an option, all things considered. Not only would the death toll be insurmountable, but frankly it’s not a long-term solution - depending on how many giants there are, and how staggered their approach is, there’s a decent chance humanity would die out first, with the use of this method.

As it turns out, there actually is one final ace up their sleeve. The serum the soldiers were injected with? It’s called the Viper Serum (I’d love to know the reason behind that one), and it’s in one more human. His name is Amon Butler, he’s a famous war hero, and he’s utterly infused with the stuff.

Now, you’re probably wondering why they didn’t just bring him out in the first place. I mean, if he’s been exposed to more of the stuff, that means he’s stronger and will have a better chance of surviving the giants, right? Well…it turns out that there may be some side effects to the serum, such as mental instability. So Amon has been in cryo for 32 years.

Think about that for a minute. This isn’t a case of the Winter Soldier, where they’re only pulling him out as needed and putting him in cryo in order to extend his usefulness. They locked Adam away because they’re afraid of him. They couldn’t bear to do anything else with him, so they locked him away and hoped to god they’d never need him.

Until now, when things have become so desperate they can’t afford to overlook him. The scientist in charge of his care doesn’t want the responsibility of waking Amon hanging over his head, which should tell you something. It certainly spoke volumes to me…as did Amon’s first words upon awakening (“finally, now I can kill you all!” Does that mean he’s been seeing and remembering things while in cryo?).

As it turns out, Amon Butler isn’t actually his real name. His real name was Anthony Castar. They wiped out his name, but not his reputation (how could they possibly resist the temptation to spread rumors about a war hero?). He fought and went missing during the Vietnam War, but he didn’t stay missing.

His feats made the government decide that Anthony was the perfect test subject for their new super soldier serum. It’s completely untested, experimental, and potentially dangerous (as in: in all likelihood it is, and they have no idea what the side effects will actually be).

It would appear that after everything Amon has gone through, he olds quite the grudge against specific people. Such as General Mills…or should I say the late General Mills? There are reasons that Amon hated Mills more than anyone else, and it has a lot to do with what was done to him, as well as the setup he was thrown into, all those years ago. So I’m not really surprised he was killed. I am a bit surprised that Mills was cocky enough to think that wouldn’t happen (and that a small pistol should have prevented it…but that’s a different story).

This is an interesting series. I enjoyed this issue more than the first one, though I’m looking forward to seeing Amon in action (so far we haven’t actually seen him go up against any giants). It’s hard to believe that one man could turn the tide in a war like this, but I can only assume that’ll be the case (otherwise this is going to be a very depressing and graphic series…).

I love the rougher style and color choices being made for this series. It fits the tone perfectly. It allows them to show graphic scenes without having it become a total gore-fest. It sort of reminds me of the art style in the Walking Dead, which is actually pretty perfect, because the tones are alarmingly similar.

Score: 4/5

Graveland #2
Scout Comics