Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment
Writer: Joe Tyler
Artist: Carlos Granda
Editor: Jessica Rossana
Release Date: 16 March 2016
Price: $3.99

Escape From Monster Island #2 plays out like Jurassic Park meets King Kong as an elite mercenary unit is dispatched to a Pacific Island to retrieve a mysterious ‘something’ for the U.S. Government. Their only problem is that this is where the U.S. Government has been keeping and experimenting on dozens of species of dangerous creatures who have taken over the island after it was evacuated following a disaster in 2012.

All caught up? Good. You’d think by now every government on Earth would know that a secret island full of monsters is never going to end well – do they never watch movies or read books for crying out loud? And have you ever stopped to think just how many elite mercenaries end up as plain old cannon fodder? If these guys are the elite, that doesn’t say much for the rest. Not that they do too badly against werewolves and giant spiders, but much worse it to come.

In Escape From Monster Island #2 pretty much every monster genre box is ticked here. We have macho military types, a tame vampire who doesn’t look too happy about being on the side of the good guys, the moral female monster expert who nobody listens too, the wisecracking subordinates, the men in suits whose mess this is anyway who, sensibly, don’t want to get anywhere near this almighty snafu, and a pointy eared elvish chick in a metal bikini who looks intent on stirring up all sorts of trouble.

So for Escape From Monster Island #2 you might get monster overload and the human characters are a touch clichéd but overall Escape from Monster Island is good fun in a popcorn movie kind of way and worth the price of admission.

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Stephen Hooker