Time Bomb #1, Driver For The Dead #1 & Aladdin: Legacy Of The Lost #1-#3 - Graphic Novel Review

In creating set characters off a chosen motif, the idea is to not change their motivations but instead the situations around them. If the situation is completely against what is known as a normal way of life to these people, the reactions become more much indicative of the overall reaction of a culture. Radical Publishing understands this especially in broadening the texture of their stories. While Aladdin is somewhat better known, its motivations and eventually its mythology are altered in a radical way while the continuing elements of "Time Bomb" and "Drive For The Dead" establish the relevance of their respective stories.Aladdin: Legacy Of The Lost (#1,2 & 3 of 3) The story of a street urchin brought to the pinnacle of power in the ancient world though the power of a genie has manufactured itself in many different ways. Because of the cutthroat nature of that reflected part of the world, the assumption to say that it would be just as dangerous 2000 years ago is an understatement. Approaching this story in a different way is always of specific interest because the mythology can play within any predetermined notion of who this boy was or of the people he interacted with. While the initial structure does presuppose that Aladdin was lured into a hidden fortress of gold, this version suggests that it was because he was of specific birth relating more to a "chosen one" complex which inevitably works towards the greater good. Aladdin's ability to wish himself to a position of inevitable power to woo the almost inpenetrable princess suggests a similar lack of thought on his part as with previous incarnations. The death of the father though figures more prominently in the motivations of the princess. Identity rears its head in the fact of Aladdin, either being of noble borth or simple trash, is blessed or cursed on whom he believes he is. When combatting those that would destroy the kingdom after he gave his word to the king, the surprising appearance of Sinbad within the journey of Aladdin creates a much more essential vision in that creating a father figure that is inevitably doomed to fail, there is much more a creation of stakes. With the introduction of the Mantis Queen, not unlike Medusa, the tale takes on more of a Perseus connotation of a boy/man protected but ultimately at odds with the ways of the world. Creating the possibility of a journey quest unlike the simple battling of a zealot obsessed with power, the story here becomes one of higher position. Eventually summoning into the third book, the idea of sacrifice bleeds its way to a foregone conclusion but the reality points to man whose journey becomes his search for redemption. In proving himself beyond the ranks of his birth, Aladdin's identity transcends his life in a way only dictated by the laws of fate.Driver For The Dead (#1 of 3) The aspect of Southern mythology especially in respect to voodoo runs deep. The Driver, unlike the propensity in the BMW films, has a job to do not of delivering money but in consecrating the dead to the grave before they have the ability to move to the next plane or run amuck in this one. Like a vision of  blues-fueled film "Crossroads" while mixing aspects of the dead crew in "Pirates Of The Caribbean", our hero must protect the aspects of would-be life from the innocents of the world. Also like a reverse "Deathproof", the car, muscular in its appearance, is as much a weapon as anything else. Taking into account a granddaughter who knows more than she is letting on creates an avalanche of tension punctuated by the dark earthly colors of the art. Graves, as a character, knows his boundaries but plays his idea of duty as one of pure truth. The identity or crux of his existence is never in question but his acceptance of the life he leads and those he must fight always brings an aspect of brevity to his situations. When a gang of would-be undead who look like a Western-lynching posse arrives at his front door after an exorcism gone wrong, the stakes begin to build.Time Bomb (#1 of 3) Going back in time to stop a scourge of mankind about to unfurl steeps a rag tag team to the apex of World War II and into Nazi headquarters. Like the beginning of "Hellboy", the idealization of human culture and what the bigger sacrifice will be takes on a new level of complexity. Using aspects of "Timeline" but within a purely military objective of discovering a secret testing facility before it has time to activate, the action constitutes itself in the details. The beginnings in present day have a depiction of Cold War noir to them, especially when after the throes of sex, a lover kills his female interest with a single shot, the art in the scene pinpointing a very specific vulnerable nerve. Unearthing an archeological site under Berlin, a switch is flipped signaling a scourge weapon. Like "Sphere" or "Armageddon", the race against time begins because of the airborne pathology of what is happening. The breakdown of the team works within applicable circumstance with the female badass who charms the enemy while the black soldier seems utterly out of place in 1940s Germany which he finds at times undeniably funny. The snow they drop into in Berlin though reflects the icy truth of their situation despite any brevity brought into the narrative.