Writer: Kevin Munroe
Artists: Dave Wilkins (p), Dave Wilkins & Sean Galloway (i)
Publisher: Dark Horse
I love Mexican wrestling. I love the masks, the high flying skills and the history of the masked wrestlers known as Luchadors. Luchadors are real life superheroes in Mexico, complete with their own movies, TV shows, comics, etc. The mask is a very respected symbol that gives the Luchador their identity. With all that said and done, I thought that I would absolutely love the new El Zombo Fantasma series from Darkhorse.
El Zombo Fantasma is a second-generation wrestler who has taken the mantle from his father and made it his own. El Zombo is moderately successful, having spawned an action figure and a cartoon, El Zombo and Friends. During a Match against Captain Courageous, we are privy to a conversation between El Zombo and management where El Zombo is told to lose to Captain Courageous. Instead of being pinned by the Captain, El Zombo beats the crap out of him and is disqualified. After the match, El Zombo leaves the arena and is shot and killed.
Flashback to the past year of El Zombo’s life where we see that his success has gotten to his head. “I don’t give a crap what you want me to do out there. Just make sure I get paid, laid, and made, bro.” He disgraces his family and slips further and further out of touch.
Then he appears in Heaven where he meets his case worker, Angelo. Angelo has gone over his file and is not too happy with what he sees, so he makes El Zombo a deal: Become a guardian angel to Belisa “Beli” Alejandra Marguerite Consuela Chi-Chi Montoya or go to hell. El Zombo agrees to watch over her, all the while plotting his revenge against the person responsible for his death.
Enter Beli. Beli is a little girl whose parents died in an accident. She now lives with in a bad neighborhood with her granny who is having a hard time making rent. To say that Beli has a chip on her shoulder is an understatement. Beli goes to the local graveyard, the only place where no one can bother her. While in he gravyard she is confronted by two punks who are looking for trouble. El Zombo appears and quickly deals with the two punks. Beli realizes it is El Zombo, her favorite wrestler. He tells her he is her guardian angel and she wants to learn some cool wrestling moves. The end.
Masked Mexican wrestler? Check. Cool art? Check. Should be good, right? Well, not quite. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked this book up, but this definitely wasn’t it. It’s a standard kind-of-bad-guy-makes-good story, only it happens to be a wrestler. There just wasn’t anything for me to sink my teeth into. After reading this book, I kind of just shrugged. Not a bad book, but not very original either. The one thing that did stand out in this book is the art. El Zombo is big and cartoony and the art just looked great. Also, I really enjoyed the two pin-ups in the back of the book by Joe Chiodo and Francis Tsai. Good stuff. Maybe issue #2 will pick up the pace a bit and surprise me.
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