by Anthony Perconti
in Issue 92, September 2019
2019
As far as bad days go, high school senior Becca Rodriguez is having a pretty crap one. While en route to Mexico to inter her mother’s ashes, her flight takes a permanent detour. The passengers are pulled through a planar vortex into the realm known as Weirdworld. This land is a crazy quilt of various parallel dimensions spliced together where bizarre flora, fauna, magic and super science all coexist, an unstable and constantly shifting landscape. Where Lost Things Go begins immediately at the conclusion of the previous volume, Warzones!, in which Arkon the Magnificent is busy hacking up a giant monstrosity that is gobbling up the passengers of the downed airliner. His greeting to the crash survivors is brief yet imperative; “Welcome to Weirdworld. Now run!” Becca grabs her backpack and follows Arkon’s advice, narrowly avoiding being eaten by a flying mass of tentacles, fangs and eyes. And to be clear, next to avoiding the fate of ending up as some creature’s mid-day snack, this desperately lost girl’s primary focus is finding a way back to Earth. Not just for herself, but to honor her mother’s wish of being buried in Zapopan. Many of the great set pieces, characters and creatures that made Warzones! such an entertaining read are present in Lost Things, however after getting through the first issue, it becomes abundantly clear that there is a drastic tonal difference from the previous volume. By no means is that a bad thing; if we can consider Warzones! to be a blood and guts book, then this volume is Weirdworld’s heart and soul. Sure, this book is chock full of sorcery, of wizards and monsters getting the stuffing kicked out of them, but it’s also about personal regret, the loss of loved ones and conversely, duty, friendship and hope.
Upon making her escape, writer Sam Humphries draws the curtain back to introduce two critical players in Becca’s odyssey. Ogeode is the Wildermen wizard who opened the vortex that pulled the airliner through to Weirdworld. When Becca first encounters the wizard, he appears as a fur covered humanoid, but for the vast majority of the volume, he is trapped in the form of a winged, horned cat. The wizard utilized an artifact of power, the Wuxian Seed, to open the rift. When Ogeode’s Wildermen form is destroyed, the Seed falls into Becca’s possession; this mystical artifact is the story’s McGuffin, the object that is coveted by a powerful faction. The person responsible for destroying the Wildermen’s body is Goleta the Wizard Slayer. From an aesthetic standpoint, Goleta resembles a cross between Marvel’s Femizon-warrior Thundra, crossed with the Netflix rebooted iteration of She-Ra. A larger than life woman who loves nothing more than drinking copious amounts of mead and wizard killing, who cruises around Weirdworld in a souped-up cherry red convertible with a death’s head blower towering from the hood, with the vanity plate WIZ KILLA . And if that isn’t enough, the vast majority of her lines are delivered in such purple prose that they could have easily been lifted from an issue of Lee and Kirby’s The Mighty Thor. As a matter of survival, Becca signs on to be Goleta’s squire, claiming that she has slain “ten hundred” wizards in order to land the gig. The majority of the humor in Lost Things is derived from the odd couple relationship between these three characters. The plot takes off when this dysfunctional fellowship goes on The Wizard of Oz like quest in order to fulfill their individual aims (a new body, greater glory and the way home).
As in the previous volume, Morgan Le Fay returns as the antagonist of the piece. Le Fay and her Lava Men Army are engaged in a war against Jennifer Kale, The Swamp Queen and a coalition of races bolstering her Man-Thing Army. The two queens’ field generals make an appearance in this volume as well; Moltar of the Magma Men and Skull the Redeemer, respectively. Humphries fleshes out Le Fay’s back story, relating her arduous rise to power in the Kingdom of the Torch and revealing that she is also of Earth and has been trapped on Weirdworld for sixty years. What is interesting about Le Fay’s motivation in coveting the Wuxian Seed is for the purpose of saving Elizabeth, her aged dying lover. Certainly, Humphries portrays Le Fay as a ruthless individual, who has no qualms about wholesale slaughter, yet adds some emotional depth to the character in letting the reader see the very human reason for wanting the Seed (not to say she won’t take over the realm once Elizabeth is cured). We are also privy to the fact that Becca’s mother suffered from mental illness, which led to her suicide; naturally, Becca carries the burden of a conflicting host of emotions in working through her loss. We also learn of the death of Goleta’s lover, Zirkana, during the fall of the kingdom of Crystallium. The level of emotional heft that this series contains is remarkable; during their adventures, Becca and Goleta form a bond of friendship, as buffer against loss. “One person can be lost. But two are always going somewhere.”
Emotional depth aside, at its core, Lost Things stays true to its roots and revels in its pulpy literary antecedents. This title makes no apologies for what it is; an over the top lost world/ swords and sorcery comic and proud of it. To this end, artist Mike Del Mundo plays an integral role in rendering this world in all its absurd, psychedelic, day-glow glory. I ask you; in what other comic book can you find a city block leveling battle between The Mammoth Inferno (who by way of introduction screams, “I spit hot fiyah!”) and the skeleton of a giantess harnessed in sci-fi battle armor, controlled by The Grand Mechanic? Or meeting Eta, the female Watcher assigned to record events of great importance on Weirdworld, or perhaps flying across the Fang Mountains with a squadron of Dog Fighters (as in intelligent talking canine pilots a la Snoopy)? Marvel Comics cancelled this series at the sixth issue, which is a shame because I can only imagine what Humphries and Del Mundo had planned moving forward through its first year. The final issue, ironically titled “Happily Ever After”, wraps up the series on a somber note. None of the characters acquire their heart’s desire, including Le Fay. To make matters worse, a member of the fellowship loses their life. A somber note to be sure, but not a desperate one. The survivors dust themselves off and take comfort in an old maxim that describes Weirdworld; “A place where the lost can be found.” Armed with this knowledge, the two wanderers, with hope in their hearts, walk off into the sunset arm in arm to begin their quest anew.
Amazon Links to Weirdworld Vol. 0 and 1
https://www.amazon.com/Weirdworld-Vol-Warzones-Marvel-Comics/dp/0785198911/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/139-4227825-1685051?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0785198911&pd_rd_r=ce76c700-124b-4de5-914a-88a4123ba1a2&pd_rd_w=J1DgM&pd_rd_wg=7XORB&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=1J144H7JCE75K58HD9K8&psc=1&refRID=1J144H7JCE75K58HD9K8
https://www.amazon.com/Weirdworld-Vol-Where-Lost-Things/dp/1302900439/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/139-4227825-1685051?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1302900439&pd_rd_r=bda48b6b-7f05-43cc-864e-442dc4cfbe7a&pd_rd_w=7SXC8&pd_rd_wg=kxrrS&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=2S6TCT9GXN2S5NQZBZX0&psc=1&refRID=2S6TCT9GXN2S5NQZBZX0
©September 2019, Anthony Perconti
Anthony Perconti‘s lives and works in the hinterlands of New Jersey with his wife and kids. He enjoys good stories across many different genres and mediums.