Amalgama Space Zombie #1 Review
By Kevin Hoskinson
There are times in life when you see something so crazy, ridiculous, and awe-inspiringly insane that you can’t help but fall in love with it a little bit. Action Lab Danger Zone’s ‘Amalgama Space Zombie’ left me with that feeling, and also a little bit of “WTF did I just read?”
The story starts with Amalgama waking up on a NASA space probe drifting in space. She is nude, covered in blood and surrounded by corpses that have been torn apart and eaten through. She has no recollection of how she got there but knows that she is full and needs to find some clothes. Along the way, she eats whatever scraps are left of the bodies and starts to get little glimpses of how she got there and remembering what the ship’s purpose was. It was a mission to Mars, but there is nothing there for her, so she sets course for beyond Mars.
Things get crazier when a droid awakens and must destroy any foreign life forms on the ship, and that means Amalgama. She quickly learns that she has abilities she never knew she had, including, “Like a T-1000!!”, turning her left arm into any weapon she pleases. Very curious indeed!
Before the story begins, we are given a definition of amalgam, which is a ‘mixture or blend’. We are then given the definition of Amalgama, which is ‘a space zombie created from the genetics of Zombie Tramp, Vampblade, and Dollface.’ If I’m going to be perfectly honest, I have seen these characters before while traversing my local comic shop, but I never really looked into the mythology or read a book featuring them. And that’s a shame because if this book is any indication, I have been missing out on some great stories.
Written by Jason Martin with artwork by Winston Young, Amalgama is a very adult grind-house story set on a space ship starring a space zombie, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. The writing is spot on, it’s funny but also gives you all the exposition you need to know for now. As she figures things out, we are figuring things out (at least those who haven’t read much previous to this). The pure joy and excitement Amalgama displays when she discovers that her arm is a weapon is all of us in this situation (it’s not an ideal situation, but that would be pretty awesome!), and that really bounced off of the page and a lot of that has to do with the work by Young. He really helps keep the charm of the story within the pages with his beautiful character designs and their facial expressions.
I enjoyed every page I spent with Amalgama. As stated before, this is a real adult-oriented story; there is nudity and a lot of blood. It’s also super fun, charming, intriguing, and one of a kind. This series is off to a great start, and I will be checking out some of the other stories based in this world soon. Give this one a shot; you will definitely have a good time.
Rating: 8.0 out of 10
Kevin Hoskinson is a writer with a deep-seeded love for movies, comic books, television and the paranormal. From humble beginnings working the box office at his local movie theater, he’s worked his way to becoming a humble family man and professional bug exterminator. Growing up, he wanted to become an astronaut, a Ghostbuster, a dinosaur, and a Disney animator before he found his passion for writing as a teen. He studied film at Los Angeles Valley College with an emphasis on screenwriting and film criticism. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and two kids. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter @Kevin_Hoskinson, and Instagram @kevinhoskinson.