Goon has gotten himself into a lot messed up situations that he somehow got out of. In the latest one-shot “The Goon: Theatre Bizarre,†Goon gets himself into a carnival from hell that is like a wonderful day at the carnival.
One foggy Halloween Goon is traveling to Detroit with the other trucks in his circus caravan. He stops in front of what he thinks is his, but it’s actually “Theatre Bizarre,†a circus controlled by an evil figure known as Zombo the Clown. It’s here that Goon finds himself in a plot by Roxi Dlite to get her out of her infernal contract.
For a side story, this is sure a lot of fun. In fact, there’s so much that can be done with an evil carnival. Since this is only a one-shot, Eric Powell wisely chose only a handful of things for our leads to do like the target practice game. Not much scary stuff happens, just scary imagery.
The downside to the story is the ending. The comic builds up this entire scary situation, only to have it blow up in our face. In other words, nothing gets done and the entire comic feels like a pointless side story that’s only there to have a past character have something to do.
The art by John Dunivant has a lot of different things going for it. At the beginning of the comic we see the background of Zombo the Clown looks like the typical carnival poster. It’s as scary as one can expect. The comic goes back and forth between black and white to red and black. This is an excellent style that shows off the disparities between Goon and the carnival.
“The Goon: Theatre Bizarre†is a fun side story with great art that’s worth reading during Halloween despite the disappointing ending.
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