TERROR,INC #5 (2008).
© Marvel/MAX

Mania Grade: B+
Issue: 5
Authors: David Lapham, Patrick Zircher, June Chung
Publisher: Marvel/MAX
Price: $3.99

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TERROR, INC #5

David Lapham’s remake Dan Chichester and Margaret Clark’s Terror Inc. concludes with a bloody mess and a bit of dues ex machine. At this juncture, Talita, Terror’s supposedly-dead medieval bride, has arisen and reclaimed her arm that our hero kept for hundreds of years after her apparent death. An ancient curse makes Terror take body parts to restore his rotting form. But, Talita’s arm remains. A little witchcraft and a lot of love have it fresh and her memory secure in Terror’s mind. But, since the arm didn’t die, neither did she. Having lived in the empty black void between life and death, she has arisen to lead a Los Angeles death cult that worships extreme hedonism and the nothingness that will follow. And, they blow themselves up for her. And, she really wants Terror dead for keeping her alive for all those years. Without her super-magic parts, Terror rots faster and has to borrow parts all that more frequently. One wonders how an undead mercenary with a sexy British secretary can take down a megalomaniacal cult priestess and stay in tact. Read this fifth issue of Terror Inc. to find out.

Terror Inc. offers interesting twists on a number of familiar themes. Terror, while possessed of an agreeable enough demeanor – minus the skull head and rotting parts – fails as a hero on just about every level. He works as a mercenary, and all you can really say for him is that his enemies are much worse. Anyone looking for heroic inspiration and moral certainty should look elsewhere. But, if you love antiheroes and gore – dear God, if you love gore – then this issue of Terror Inc. – and, indeed, the rest of the series – will probably interest you. It reads as if writer David Lapham and penciller Patrick Zircher jumped into an interconnected world of death metal album covers and came back with a story. Imagine leaping into the cover of a Morbid Angel record, crossing through ones by Entombed and Deicide, before emerging through something by Cannibal Corpse. This issue offers so much gore that you practically have to wring it out before reading it. And, frankly, I like it just fine. But, others may not. While Lapham writes Terror with depth and even sympathy, his largely warlike origins and mercenary occupation will make him worse than Frank Castle in the eyes of many readers. But, if you can embrace your disgust as I have, you’ll find a bloody good time with Terror Inc. Pick this up, or grab the trade when it comes out.

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