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Infestation 2: 30 Days of Night #1 - One-Shot

4

The world of H.P. Lovecraft invades the 30 Days of Night Universe during the 1950s as undercover agents try to discover what they think Russians are up to near the North Pole. What they discover is a lot larger than they could ever imagine.

The Good

I really liked the fact this was a self-contained, one-shot story. One of my favorite aspects of this issue is the time is took place: 1952. Technology isn't what it is now, and better yet, the story takes place during the Cold War close to the USSR. It's a cool time for a story to take place since there is this incredible tension between two nations, and it's not covered very often in the world of comic books.

This issue has a great story where a woman and her uncle are on a top secret mission near the North Pole to take some photos of an installation that belongs to "them" AKA Russians. Of course said installation is infested with "vampires" and very quickly and giant beast also appears. I'm glad this one was not drawn out to two issues because it works so well as a one-shot and has a stellar pace to it.

Of course, we get to see some Ruskies take on not only some "vampires" but also a giant Cthulhu beast. There's a good amount of action in here, but even better is the fact the balance between action and story is wonderful. What had me the most impressed was some of the page composition. Panel set-up is fresh and creative and many times, panels are places over a splash page, so the negative space within the page is actually filled with art. The eye moves naturally over the page and at times, the panel layout can be as chaotic as the action happening within the panels themselves, which I thought was incredibly cool.

The Bad

I had one big concern with this issue and that was the art. Close ups on faces were distorted and colors all washed together where at times, you couldn't even tell what was going on within the page.

I also wasn't the biggest fan of the "sketchy" style the book had. To me, it's a style that feels like it was rushed, no matter how long someone worked on the art.

The Verdict

So far, this is my third favorite of the Infestation 2 tie-ins, behind TMNT and G.I. Joe. Although it may be quick, this book does a great job at combining these two different worlds in a creative way. I've always been a fan of 30 Days of Night and I've been enjoying Infestation 2 immensely.

I loved the fact this took place during the Cold War, which is a time period which gets passed up a lot by creative teams. The story itself involving people on a top secret mission was cool, and the story kept escalating and really kept me on my toes. I loved the fact that there really wasn't traditional negative space on the pages. The backgrounds were all part of a larger panel, so it gave the book a great flow and set a sinister mood.

The only problem I had with this issue was that I wasn't the biggest fan of the sketchy art style. It felt a bit rushed to me and sometimes, I had trouble figuring out what was happening on the pages.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one-shot, and I'd recommend it to all the Infestation 2 fans or even the 30 Days of Night fans. It was a fun read and fit in incredibly well with the rest of the event.

In case you were wondering, here are some other Infestation 2 scores thus far, and a few reviews I've done of the series:

Infestation 2 #1: 4 out of 5

Dungeons & Dragons #1: 2 out of 5

D&D #2: 2 out of 5

Team-Up: N/A (Never got a hold of a copy)

Transformers #1: 4 out of 5

Transformers #2: 3 out of 5

G.I. Joe #1: 4 out of 5

G.I. Joe #2: 4 out of 5

TMNT #1: 5 out of 5

TMNT #2: 4 out of 5

30 Days of Night: 4 out of 5

Infestation #2: Coming Soon!