In 2009, Joe Casey was beginning to make the turn from good to great. In the next couple years he’d produce his best-known project, Officer Downe, and perhaps his highest quality one, Butcher Baker, both for Image Comics. He also was three-years into his creator-owned ongoing at the time, Godland. Yes, all of that is a plug for Joe Casey—a creator I admire—but it’s also context.
Zodiac is not a typical Marvel tie-in book (or a typical Marvel book at all). He’s a new character, an anti-big Government and anti-super-hero protester who is part of a crew of underground resistance.
One of them dresses like Obnoxio the Clown. In fact, I’m tagging him as a character here because we haven’t seen him in years. I’m also tagging this as cosplay. Anyway, the dude calls himself “Clown” and he’s the half-brother of The Clown from Circus of Crime. Apparently his brother stepped down from the Circus and this dude, who is just called “Franklin,” took his costume.
We learn right away that they bugged (Dark) Avengers Tower and wants to take down Norman Osborn. (Suspend your disbelief that the clinically paranoid Osborn wouldn’t regularly sweep the Tower for bugs.)
Zodiac’s crew also includes Death Reaper (pictured above), who is the daughter of Nekra and has vaguely defined magical abilities, and the old Spider-Man/Luke Cage villain Manslaughter Marsdale, who has enchanced strength and immunity to pain. The final member is the original Whirlwind(!), who is Zodiac’s “man on the inside.” Whirlwind works for Osborn but feeds Zodiac information.
In issue #3, Zodiac recruits Trapster who is now a professional computer hacker. Trapster is fantastic in this book.
He hacks HAMMER’s computers to make them think Galactus is coming, hijacks the old Red Ronin robot, and enables Zodiac to steal the Zodiac key (which is where the series ends).
Zodiac is a criminal genius, and I’m not going to reveal all the twists and turns here. The plot and characterizations are complex, and this series is a blast to read.
Zodiac will next appear facing off against Moon Knight but, sadly, won’t be written by Casey.
Finallly, a word about the art: Nathan Fox is an unusual artist with a distinct style that really doesn’t fit in the Marvel mold. In fact, the heroes are downright grotesque in some scenes.
This makes him perfect for a book about anarchists who want to destroy all superheroes.
English (US) · 