2005 and Marvel Knights, Marvel's more violent imprint, brought us Shanna The She-Devil:
"She’s bold, she’s beautiful, and she’s your best hope of escaping the raptors nipping at your heels. She’s Shanna, the She Devil! That’s right, fanboys – the wait is finally over: Award-winning creator Frank Cho brings you Marvel’s bodacious jungle girl as you’ve never seen her before: Reborn from Nazi science gone mad to battle her genetic destiny on an island full of prehistoric horrors. Trust us, Shanna has never looked this good…or acted this bad."
I very much doubt that Marvel would produce anything like this in 2020. Cho produces some beautiful artwork and Dave Stewart as colourist is sheer perfection. Now, Tarzan is seen as the perfect physical specimen of manhood able to fight and live in the wilds of Africa. No problems, right? But do the same type of thing but make a character female...screams, rants and whatever else these oddies can think of.
The cover art had me thinking -as did the publishing yak-yak- that this was just going to be "good girl" art. It was actually a fairly good story (but American comics being American comics the Nazis had to be involved if just as background story, right?) and there was an absolutely brilliant twist in the story in #7 that I loved.
If it helps, there is "affection" on Shanna's part for "Doc" which is why the twist worked so well. But if it were not for Shanna everyone would have been dead by the end of issue #1.
Dinosaurs, raptors...the mass raptor herd scene -got a smile out of me. It's good old actionb, adventure and fun from start to finish. If you can get copies of the series do but do not pay the speculator prices. There are some inexpensive copies out there and well worth getting for the fun read!
This series has Frank Cho completely within his element and his strips never fail to thrall you within his love of dynamic cinematic experience. 'Shanna' is all gorgeously drawn and coloured and his dinosaurs joyously roar and eat, eat, eat their way through the pages. I needn't say more than Cho must have loved Jurassic Park! It's straightforward, storywise. A group of ordinary humans - plus one remarkable, Shanna - imperilled by numerous voraciously fixated Saurians, all drawn with Cho's adept directorial relish. If you enjoy all that Frank enjoys, don't miss!
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