Crimes Against Nature #1 // Review
They call hi Amigo the Ape. He;s the first gorilla everto be considered for an Oscar for best actor. And now he’s being put on trial for murder. The only question is: can a gorilla murder someone in self-defense? It’s an honest question at the heart of Crimes Against Nature #1. Writer Eliot Rahal and Mattia Monaco Open a fascinating science fiction drama that clearly holds a lot more depth than the absurd premise seems to suggest. There's a real potential that comes to light in the course of the first issue. It's a surprisingly engrossing opening for the series.
Bananas. They had the gorilla working with bananas. Really it was just supposed to be a late night talk show visit. Not more than that. Promotion for the Oscar campaign. Of course, you're a late night. Talk show when you happen to have a large gorilla on stage, you're going to want to work with it. Something that might work good in promos. But there's a whole contract thing. The gorilla specifically doesn't want to work with bananas. Things get a little ugly from there. And a little bit more uglier in Las Vegas.
Rahal juggles a lot of different elements, which all seem to connect up in interesting ways. There are a lot of different elements that all stretch just beyond common place, every day credibility and believability. However, it's all internally consistent. Everything that's going on in the first issue is all internally consistent. And though there may be oversimplifications about different aspects of society with respect to a gorilla who is treated like a human being, all of the basic elements are clearly there in a way that feels engaging. It’s just weird enough to work without going over the edge into total surrealist absurdism.
Monaco captures a lot of the drama in that way that it feels compelling. Amigo is given a wide range of different emotions. But it's all very subtle with him being a giant gorilla and everything. He's grounded a very realistic world that feels very much grounded in believable rendering of the contemporary setting. Nothing's really exaggerated for comic effect. It all feels very straight ahead and straightforward with respect too it's execution. The art engages with the story in a way that seems very compatible with the overall tone and pacing of the script.
Science fiction allow us to look at the connections between human intellect and advanced technology. And although there's been a lot done on the connection between human intellect and. Animal pre-cursor, it's not nearly as popular a subject. And so it's a relief fascinating to see more textured, and considered approach to the connection between humans and those closest to us on the evolutionary ladder. I can't accept like this could really go in a very disagreeable direction very quickly. And so it's possible that things could get very ugly very quickly. But for now, but first issue really feels like a solid launching point to a very sophisticated speaking with him drama.
