Kaijumax always seems to hit when life is it’s busiest. Since my first review I haven’t been back to review since, but I’ve kept up on the series which has become… well interesting to say the least. The first issue I thought this was supposed to be a comedy of sorts. I mean it ridiculous otherwise right? You have “Ultramen” inspired police enforcers locking up Kaiju on a monster island, but then it’s all prison based so then there’s everything that goes along with that. Slang, drugs, gangs and now… rape.

After the first issue I stopped chuckling at this story and I wonder if I was supposed to find anything funny about the first issue. Again, maybe it was just too ridiculous to take serious, but here we are now three issues later and this maybe one of the most serious books on the market.

Last time we were introduced to a Kaiju that had history with one of the robots locked up and after basically putting the robot in his place just strolled along like he owned the prison. The thing is… he kind of does.

Zonn is the character in question and what makes him dangerous is his words… among other things. Now I’m going to talk about everything he does this issue so there will be some pretty big spoilers. The issue starts off with him talking to the first Kaiju that we were introduced to in the series, Electrogor. After a very pleasant talk, Zonn hits it off with Electrogor like no one else has been able to. Then suddenly Electrogor is attacked by Zonn and the aforementioned rape happens.

Yeah. Suddenly this cartoonish looking book about Kaiju really put a lot of emphasis on the “Max” part of the title. Zonn was already a shady dude, but damn did this make him the worst asshole ever. The strange part is that you kind of want to see what he’ll do next, even if it’s just to see him get his in the end. The story moves on we spend some time with Electrogor, but another big event happens as well… the first casualty of the story. I won’t spoil that, but at the end the prison doc is really broken up about it and who should appear… Zonn! And he sweet talks her in two seconds flat and makes out with her… which was really weird!

I point this out because it shows how layered the story Zander Cannon is telling. He’s interwoven all these different elements and you can kind of see how they’re going to come into play. Now Zonn has a jailer in his pocket and it’s the very same one that showed Electrogor pity.

There is just something about this story that brings me back. I’m not a big fan of prison stories and yet Cannon has found a way to make one that I’ll read. His Kaiju references definitely help, but at the end of the day this is really all about the prison life and he captures that incredibly well.

Now I know that this review was a bit recappy, but I have the feeling that a lot of people either passed on this book thinking it was a joke or maybe they got scared off. This book is hard and I don’t mean to read. If you haven’t given it a shot, then do. It’s surprising just how good it is.

Score: 4/5

Kaijumax #4 Writer/Artist: Zander Cannon Publisher: Oni Press Price: $3.99 Release Date: 7/15/15 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital