Lobster Johnson: Get the Lobster #5

It would be impossible for me to write this review without first addressing my love for Mike Mignola and everything “Mignolaverse”. Here it is: I love Mike Mignola like a comic book guardian angel. Abe Sapien is my most favorite comic book character of all time, in fact, my profile here at Comics The Gathering simply says “I wouldn’t say no to Abe Sapien”.

All of that being said, Lobster Johnson, especially this new 5 issue run “Get the Lobster!” isn’t as good as it could be and I think the character is starting to exist in the Mignolaverse just because he’s already been introduced because unless I missed it, this book has little to no ties to the world he’s supposed to be living in that we see in other books.

Mignola created Johnson as a breath of fresh air in the lovecraftian and deeply dark mythos of his universe. In a world populated by the likes of Rasputin, Elder Gods and a titular hero literally called Hellboy there also exists Lobster Johnson, a sometimes witty and almost always cool Noir-like hero who isn’t afraid to kill the bad guys Nazi or not. Through the likes of Iron Prometheus and the Burning Hand, Johnson has been that breath of fresh air and I was hoping it would continue with this new 5 issue run, Get the Lobster. It’s a Lobster Johnson story definitely, but it isn’t one that needs to be told and this final issue couldn’t save the sinking zeppelin that appears on its cover.

Mignola and Arcudi, whom I both admire deeply, do their best to create a short, contained noir story about Johnson fighting radio controlled men in New York City which he now protects day and night. The writing isn’t bad, but it isn’t revelatory either. There’s little to nothing tying this book to the other Mignola books at all, something which has been successfully done in plenty of other Johnson books. My biggest gripe however, is that we still aren’t getting a full characterization of the man under the lobster garb. There’s little to no character building at all really, we see that Johnson is obsessed with “Justice” and that he isn’t afraid to kill in the name of it but aside from that, he’s simply a vigilante who happens to be at the forefront of this book, there’s no real or compelling reason to care for him as you would care for Abe Sapien or Hellboy. A short and concise noir story is told here and it reaches a satisfying conclusion but it’s carried mostly by the art, not the writing.

Zonjic’s art is the crux here, the driving force, the Lobster to the Johnson. It’s cinematic, exciting, clean and precise. Lobster Johnson looks cool, the action scenes are good, the world looks real and it even has homages to other Mingola book’s art. Zonjic has carried this little run and if you’re going to get this book at all, get it to really look at and appreciate how well he creates a noir world that isn’t dull or cliche.