Broken Frontier

Mr. Terror, star of his own 1990s Marvel book, returned at the end of last year under the Marvel MAX imprint. With the collected edition now in stores Broken Frontier takes a look at David Lapham's take on the corpse-like assassin...

Terror Inc. has been resurrected for a new generation. Though created in the 1980s, the publication history and appearances by Mr. Terror have been sporadic. David Lapham and Patrick Zircher author this new tale of the centuries old mercenary and inject new life into his eternally rotting character. Published under the MAX imprint of Marvel Comics, Terror Inc. delivers on the gore and action/horror that typifies the explicit content line from the House of Ideas. This edition collects the five-issue limited series released in 2007.

Mr. Terror was a Vandal, a barbarian fighting the last remnants of the Late Roman Empire. He faced off with a demon summoned by the Roman sorcerers and ended up with a vicious curse. Though he became immortal, his flesh continuously rotted from his bones. In order to remain vital, he was forced to replenish body parts by ripping them from fresh victims and attaching them to himself. With each gory replacement, he gained a little of that person's soul along with their flesh. After centuries of wandering and replenishing his decaying body, Mr. Terror created Terror, Inc. in Los Angeles, where he has become a high paid mercenary/assassin, specializing in the grisliest of missions.

Mr. Terror takes an assignment from the Department of Homeland Security to assassinate a leader who many suspect has defected. He finds out that a more dastardly plot is afoot, and Mr. Terror himself is the true target. His past comes back to haunt him, and the entire country is threatened by a nihilistic organization at the command of a former love of Terror's. Left for dead in the twelfth century, Talita has spent the last 850 years in physical stasis, but wide awake. After progressing through madness, the isolation and communion with the void has made her a mistress of Death, and spiritual inspiration for the Death's Reign terrorist organization. Her associate Mr. Harper, has built the organization from amongst the most depraved, into a terrorist group with thousands of members.

David Lapham, a veteran of crime fiction with his self-published series, Stray Bullets, injects the series with noir sensibilities to go along with the ghoulish horror. Lapham's villains are the true monsters, and though I would hesitate to call Mr. Terror a good-guy compared to the sexually perverse, death loving terrorists he faces, he is downright heroic. Aside from Mrs. Primo, Terror's employee and sidekick, the story is populated with vicious characters including a child abusing boyfriend, and perverted terrorists.

The reader can take justifiable pleasure in watching Mr. Terror tears these lowlifes limb from limb and use their body parts to revitalize himself. Terror pays the price of having to absorb, at least partially, the personalities of these malignant souls, and sometimes they are even able to take control. Lapham has made Terror a kind of Bogeyman to the scum of the earth, and their fates are brutally realized. He has resigned himself to his fate and to his curse, and finds the more terrible members of society to feed his unique appetite. Survival and replenishing of his physical body is the primary motivation for Mr. Terror, but Lapham imbues him with an anti-hero's morality.

Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic handles the cover art, and I am thankful Marvel chose to include the painted covers from the individual issues. The cover for issue four is a delightfully horrific image of Terror's head in a jar of formaldehyde, eyes wide open staring the reader in the face. It captures very well the essence of a character who is basically a living, rotting corpse.

I cannot stress enough how gory this series is. There is nary a page where Patrcik Zircher does not delight us with splatters of blood or body parts being chopped, shot, or blown up. This book is not for the faint of heart or soft of stomach. Zircher packs in tremendous detail and really pulls out all the stops when it comes to depicting the almost non-stop scenes of murder and mayhem. Limbs are shorn from victims, throats are slashed, intestines are ripped out of people's abdomens with alarming regularity, and Zircher's art is perfectly suited to it. The coloring and production is up to Marvel's usual standards, and the artwork pops off the gloss pages.

Terror Inc. is no doubt an odd concept. I vaguely remember the 90s series, and then only for being introduced to Leonardo Manco's art. It was never one of the books that I remember fondly, with any nostalgia. This take on Mr. Terror succeeds as an orgy of gore, with a well crafted story to carry the action. My tastes usually run to the more psychological or classic monster horror, so I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this. I don't know if Mr. Lapham and Mr. Zircher have any plans to continue with Terror Inc. but I'd like to see another limited series.

The Terror Inc. trade paperback is out now from Marvel's MAX imprint priced $16.99.