Issue 5 of Boom!’s new 28 Days Later series focuses on the comic’s back story, attempting to explain why two Pulitzer prize winning journalists have decided to bring the Amazonian Selena out of her sanctuary on the Isle of Wight, and back into the fray of an infected London.
What appears to be an uncharacteristically dull issue, is spiced up with sprawling snapshots of London terror, and tense US airport panic scenes where civilians stampede over a woman sneezing,. Perhaps she’s caught the H1N1, wrong infection. Unfortunately for all you gorehounds, there is only one real action scene as yet another solution for the ‘cure’ goes wrong and scientists are slaughtered by an enraged, infected, Muslim terrorist turned guinea pig.
It seems like the writers wanted to cast the protagonists as some kind of vigilante freedom fighters, but something in the story just didn’t accommodate. Instead, we have adrenaline junky journalists who act like act like a military team, and frequently deal with shady military forces.
At least the artwork is solid. Issue 5 features two mass-produced covers. Version A — a tightly cropped close up of Selena’s bloody, trademark, machete. Version B — a stark shot of post-battle Selena, drenched in blood, machete wielding, atop a pile of fresh kills, all done in a monochrome scheme save for deep red blood and a river of blood behind her.
If you are a reader who’s looking to get off on the next ‘infected’ evisceration, then might want to skip this issue, but if you are the kind of fan who needs to know everything about their heroes, then this book is worth the read.
