Video Jack - Issue 5

[David Swan]

Things are not going well for a series that started with so much promise

 

The first guest penciller for issue 5 is Al Weiss. We see that Uncle Zach has zapped Jack and Damon into a pirate movie and Damon is the captain. Things look bad for Jack until Doreen and her own attack Damon's ship. An odd looking ship comes sailing up on the pirate ship captained by the now grayish green looking Uncle Zach who presses the remote sending everyone into one of those late night soap opera's (think Falcon Crest, Dallas etc..) so popular in the 80's.

 

The next guest artist is Carmen Infantino who, in his heyday, was a superior artist but over the years developed a unique style; a style I never liked. Characters always appear flattened and distorted like the entire world was tilted at a slight angle. As if the series couldn't get any worse we have one of my least favorite well known artists and an exceptionally dull reality. Jack and Damon are competing millionaires and Damon has just bought controlling shares in Swift Enterprises. Also, Damon has created a small army of robots based on a cohort of his from the real world named Tyrone which I hadn't mentioned before. Damon forces Jack and Doreen to have dinner at his mansion where a seated Uncle Zach is now truly dead. Damon inexplicably attacks Jack with flaming shish-kabobs (hence the cover) but the fight is interrupted by the Tyrone's heads exploding one by one thanks to some sabotage on the part of Jack. Seeing that things aren't going his way Damon pulls the remote from Uncle Zach's mouth and changes the channel back to the place he feels most comfortable, the MTV reality.

 

Unfortunately for Damon the destruction of the Tyrone's has affected his M.T.V. army who are now all missing their own heads. Damon seems to be beaten until he pulls out his final trump card, a static bomb to destroy all the realities except Hickory Haven which he intends to escape to. This really doesn't make much sense and even Jack points out that he may be destroying all of reality but Damon goes ahead and presses the button with the final frame of the page being blank white.

 

Reality now focuses on what appears to be a tuxedo'd man with a freakishly enormous smile and stars for eyes. This, ladies and gentleman, is Pop Culture and he will be putting our hero through, 'This is Your Life and Death'.

 

Readers were treated (teased) to six pages of Keith Giffen penciling at the end of issue 5 but it couldn't save this train wreck. Why is it that only Jack is disoriented when reality shifts? Why is Damon always in a position of power in new realities? Why was Uncle Zach a zombie the last few issues only to die halfway through this issue? These questions and more will never be answered. The patient is dying but only with issue six will it finally be put out to rest.

 

See more journals by David Swan

[SW3D]

Do you think Tyrone and the heads are a nod to Baron and Rude's Nexus?

 

In Nexus, Tyrone is an alien refugee who runs for mayoral office in Ylum: Nexus' homebase/alien asylum. A number of aliens have gone through experimentation and are now psionically charged disembodied heads... collectively known as The Heads.

 

I get a feeling this is a parody or nod to Nexus.

 

What do you think?

 

Back in the 80's Nexus was one of my favorites.

I totally miss that character!

 

SW3D