Lobster Johnson: Get the Lobster #1 Review: Not the Same

People expect a constant stream of gold from Mike Mignola and John Arcudi. The minds behind “Hellboy” and “Lobster Johnson” seem to do no wrong. Of course, every writer has a dud that doesn’t live up to his previous accomplishments from time to time and for Arcudi and Mignola, “Lobster Johnson: Get the Lobster” is one of them.

The plot is certainty eccentric. In what was supposed to be a normal wrestling match, the two wrestlers suddenly attack the crowd, with one of them armed with a gun. Meanwhile, Cyndy Tynan has written an expose on Lobster Johnson called “Who is the Lobster?” Johnson now has to get fight these wrestlers and find out who they are and who they work for.

The charm of what makes “Lobster Johnson” is there, but the story itself is missing something. It has that dingy 1930s noir feel that fans absolutely devour. The problem is the story so far isn’t as interesting as previous ones. These two professional wrestlers do live up to their noir tropes; problem is they’re not all that interesting. Noir characters have to be cheesy and cliché, that’s the whole reason people love noir. They just have to be interesting for people to like them.

The plot itself is also barely there, and what’s there is not worth looking at. A story about two villains masquerading as wrestlers isn’t as interesting as “Lobster Johnson’s” previous plots. A Story about an evil Asian madam that can summon dragons will be better than this.

Tonci Zonjic’s art is still wonderful to look at. It’s one of the main draws of the series in that he makes this comic look like a noir world. In this particular comic his designs of the two wrestlers, like the story itself, aren’t interesting. Yes, they’re supposed to look like how wrestlers were back in that time, but even back then there were more flashy wrestlers. These guys look like those wrestling action figure you’d find in a 99¢ store.

“Lobster Johnson: Get the Lobster” is a disappointing entry into the “Lobster Johnson” universe. A story featuring dull enemies and not at all interesting plot fans need to look at other titles in the series for their fix.