Kaijumax Season 5

Kaijumax Season 5 issue #1
Oni Press
Writer: Zander Cannon
Artist: Zander Cannon
FC, 32 pgs, $3.99 US

Zander Cannon’s Kaijumax is unlike anything I’ve read in comics and with so many comics being published these days I think that is a high compliment. Giant monsters (kaiju) incarcerated on a prison island run by Ultraman / Power Rangers / Voltron style guards. Cannon has said it’s HBO’s prison drama Oz with monsters and I can think of no better way to describe it in so few words. It is as unsettling, uncompromising, and socially relevant as that show…but with monsters.

Season 5 begins with Pokemon style creatures running an illegal fight tournament where kidnapped children are forced to battle each other. A raid breaks up the illegal activity and its “don”, a green, Pikachu-like badass named Pikadon is sent to the prison island, thus exciting the hopes of a class of inmates that have all escaped from a capsule, ball or watch at sometime in the past. You see, they’ve never had a leader to organize them and they now see Pikadon as a way to gain some territory and respect.

I think the heart of this particular “season” is going to be Sharkmon, a recovering addict who runs the prison barbershop. He is beaten and robbed by other inmates, teased about homosexual tendencies, and is currently den mother to a devil/goat/man that was turned into a regular goat in a previous “season”. That goat’s soulful, sad eyes is a constant reminder of Cannon’s talent, by the way.

I’ve managed to hook at least five other people on Kaijumax in trade paperback form. Now, if only I had the same success with Eric Powell’s The Goon. (Chad Boudreau)