The trade paperback for Taarna: The Last Taarakian goes on sale January 18! Written by Stephanie Phillips (Batman, Harley Quinn), with art by Patrick Zircher (Action Comics, Suicide Squad), Al Barrionuevo (Batman, Martian Manhunter), and Christian Rosado, with colors by Jessica Kholinne and Bryan Valenza, this book collects all six issues of the Heavy Metal miniseries.
The 1981 Heavy Metal movie has always been a touchstone in my ongoing love of animation. After growing up with shows like Transformers and Looney Toons, seeing more adult-oriented fare was mind-blowing. “You mean there are cartoons out there with death and violence and…sexuality? I don’t know if I should be seeing this, let’s have some more!” I feel like everyone involved in creating this mini-series has the same fascination with the source material. They’re all faithful to the feel of the original, and to what I’m sure was one of the main goals of the movie: the barely-clothed (or sometimes entirely nude) female form kicking all kinds of ass.
The plot of the series is pretty standard. An agent of chaos (Kako, a suspiciously-familiar green orb) causes problems throughout the universe, and is opposed by the agent of order: Taarna, the last survivor of a collapsed universe. Kako takes over Urcus, leader of the army of Sumuul and orders him to attack his former city. (I’m not clear on whether this is a reboot of Taarna’s story or Kako causing similar chaos in alternate universes, because Urcus is identical to the Barbarian Leader in the film). Taarna must avenge the people Urcus has slaughtered and stop Kako’s evil plan.
Not too much new there, but a few things make this series stand out. One is the art, done in three different styles by three different artists, all of them amazing. Patrick Zircher is the perfect artist to start out the series, with his clean sharp lines, vibrant colors, and the closest similarity to the source material. (And whoo-boy, that first full-page picture of Taarna, flying out of the sun riding her avian steed, that gave me chills.)
There’s a shift in artists in chapter 3 to Christian Rosado. Rosado has a more gestural, sketchy drawing style. It’s less polished than Zircher’s style, but it has a lot more energy. Which is good, because chapters 3 and 4 mostly feature Taarna going one-on-one against skyscraper-sized monsters, slashing her way out a monster’s stomach, or fighting a battle against a serpent-like creature in the middle of a maelstrom. It’s dazzling stuff; Rosado is good at both expressions and startling images, like the double-page spread of Urcus looking out over a city that’s built on top of a walking titan.
The artist for the final two issues is All Barrionuevo. These are much more painterly, with soft blending colors and artistic poses, very appropriate for images like two naked women embracing in a pool that turns into a cosmic…something.
The other thing that makes the story a little different is how Taarna herself is portrayed. She gets some dialog here, but not much, usually limiting herself to curt one-word answers, generally conveying that she has things that need to be done and she isn’t interested in being worshiped, or really having any kind of connection with the people she saves. But it becomes clear in the very first issue that her role as Agent of Order is grueling and thankless. You can see it when she wearily stumbles away from yet another self-sacrifice, she’s in an eternal battle against Chaos and it’s never enough. You can save an entire race from destruction, but if you leave without solving every other problem they have then you run the risk of being treated like you hadn’t bothered to save them in the first place.
The ending of the miniseries is left open; the story circles back around to the beginning, and a new player has been introduced who might open things up to an exploration of Taarna’s character and reason for her eternal struggle. Or, for sexy good-times. Either one would be appropriate, but I’m fairly sure the emphasis will be on sex.
