Action Lab Comics has been putting out a string of great books under their new Danger Zone imprint, and the first issue of The Final Plague is no exception. Writer Johnnie Arnold and artist Tony Guaraldi-Brown craft a creepy tale that mixes a couple different genres into something unique.
The tale begins innocently enough at a country famhouse in Iowa, where a family is dealing with an escalating rat problem. We find out as the story goes on that these are no ordinary rats, and that the affliction they suffer from may be manmade. The rat problem is also not confined to one location, and as the issue comes to a close, the rats have turned into a threat to humanity.
Johnnie Arnold’s story has a great pace to it in this opening issue, and from the opening page the sense of foreboding builds until the chaos spills over. Guraldi-Brown’s art has a painted style to it, which gives the rats in the book both a scary and a nasty feel. With the word plague in the title, you need to capture that feel of an infectious condition, and this book does that very well. I was almost cringing as the story build, knowing that every incident of human contact with the rats had the potential to create some sort of outbreak.
The Final Plague feel like an effective mix of Willard and 28 Days Later, and the action is really just getting underway. It’s a great opening chapter, and it’s worth checking out.
4 out of 5 Why Did It have To Be Rats