Lords of the Jungle

Lords of the Jungle by Corinna Sara Bechko et. al. is a free NetGalley e-comicbook that I read in early October.Beyond its simplified Realistic, everybody (even an elephant) has an outstanding stack of muscles drawing style, its cast of a few dozen people that're a little hard to keep track of, and readers wondering how exactly Sheena's top stays fastened in place, it's a pretty great comic book. The story is relatively comprehensive and its palette is ruddy, gritty, sandy, and pipes up with bold colors whenever there's a threat to the jungle or a villain storms around the corner (such as the mysterious dragon lady, Laine).

Don't judge this book by its cover because Tarzan's barely in the jungle and not much in this book. Also, he doesn't look like any of the cover images from this collected set of comics (in the book, Tarzan's got long hair and often wears street clothes). Sheena looks great, and the story really follows her. Fine, but I was misled by the cover. Meh.

I found the idea of a Sheena & Tarzan team-up irresistible, so I had to give it a try. (I'm a sucker for crossovers.) Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it was pretty bad. I honestly wonder how these people get writing gigs, when they appear to be completely ignorant - or perhaps just disdainful - of basic story structure.Egregiously, Tarzan only appeared on the last page of issue #1, then for a couple pages in #2 and finally meets Sheena well into Issue #3. (BTW - neither character is identified by name until Issue #2.) Issue #4 is an awkward info dump that finally establishes the plot, but it's handled in a ham-fisted manner. The plot turns out to be a borderline incoherent time-travel scheme that's only drawn in broad strokes. Trivialities such as motivation and logistics are only cursorily sketched in by Bechko.All the characters are cyphers. Bechko seems to think everyone knows Sheena, Tarzan and Jane, so devotes no thought to characterizations. That doesn't explain why the villains are so under-developed, though. Also, Sheena annoyingly narrates every moment of her life out loud. Seriously - it's nuts. Damn whoever decided that thought balloons were no longer acceptable in comics.Finally, after wasting the first two issues on extended (and padded) action sequences, the last issue is so rushed and confusing, that I'm not entirely sure what happened.As for the art, I liked it fine. It was a little rough and occasionally looked rushed, but it was attractive enough. While definitely talented, Castro's unfortunately not a very accomplished storyteller, and that's a shame, because Bechko leans on him hard.Oh, and then there was the production error that had two word balloons on the wrong page. Presumably someone noticed this in the original issues and chose not to spend the money to correct it for the trade. Shoddy, cheap, lazy.So.... basically another Dynamite disappointment.

Not a great book, but it was nice to see these two characters together.

Ok not the best I’ve seen.

Forget Batman vs Superman this is the superhero matchup fans have been waiting for for decades! The book is gorgeous and the plot goes unexpected places

'Lords of the Jungle' by Corinna Sara Bechko with art by Roberto Castro is a team up between Sheena Queen of the Jungle and Tarzan Lord of the Apes. I like both properties, but this story just didn't do it for me.dSheena and Tarzan are from two different times, so some magical time travel has to occur. Sheena's jungle is in trouble and in her pursuit of the bad guys, she finds herself in Tarzan's jungle, but Tarzan isn't there. She meets up and befriends Cheetah and an elephant. She gets transport on a ship to London with a circus where she finally meets Tarzan.Through this whole adventure, Sheena where's a skimpy outfit, and yet, no one in the 1930s world of Tarzan thinks it is strange or even stares at her. There is also an environmental message that fell a bit flat for me. It takes a while for the team up to finally happen, and it just felt underwhelming to me. The story and art were just not impressive. I wanted something better with these two characters meeting.I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

È vero che la storia si regge in piedi a fatica, che parte lentamente e finisce in fretta, ma nel mio caso è riuscita ad intrattenere molto bene senza annoiare. Le vicende seguono principalmente Sheena e la storia viene infatti narrata dal suo punto di vista, mentre Tarzan diventa più che altro un comprimario in corso d'opera. Trattandosi di personaggi distanti nello spazio e nel tempo, la presenza dell'elemento sci-fi per farli incontrare era prevedibile, anche se il tutto poteva essere gestito molto meglio.Disegni non particolarmente belli, ma come per la storia meritano la sufficienza, e ad alcune pagine molto belle se ne alternano tante altre piuttosto mediocri. Ma è proprio il succinto vestito di Sheena, verso cui i personaggi sembrano non batter ciglio, che presenta un nonsoché di mistico: esso è capace non solo di aderire perfettamente al corpo della protagonista, ma riesce a cambiare forma ad ogni pagina, lasciando il lettore incapace di capire come diamine esso sia strutturato.A questo punto l'idea è quella di un fumetto che abbraccia la mediocrità, ma che presenta almeno tre punti per cui merita una categoria in più: la possibilità di vedere in qualche modo questi due personaggi incontrarsi; il fatto che sia piuttosto lungo, con le sue quasi 144 pagine, e che sia stampato su dell'ottima carta; e naturalmente le meravigliose copertine. Insomma, non certo un fumetto da evitare ad occhi chiusi, ma magari da acquistare con un certo sconto.