32. Freak Force vol 1 #10 ... Image

During the hey-days of Image (not that they are gone mind you), each of the Secret Seven ... I mean founding fathers ... subsequently had spin-offs from their main titles. Erik Larsen has to-date been the most steady chap still working on his Savage Dragon. However, as is the style of Larsen, he will introduce characters, both good and bad, so very often and sometimes before you know more about them, they are gone! Bit the dust! Killed!

One concept that didn't die is Larsen's team where a group of misfits decided that unlike the Dragon, they do not want to work with the police force and decided to head out on their own setting up shop as Freak Force. For their money, they are supposed to be like special investigators cum bounty hunters. Ah well ... you knew it wouldn't last but for the time that it was around? It was good fun

Issue 10 is the best as far as I am concerned. We have a character (I am not a regular follower when this series first came out) supposedly created in a fan contest or something being featured as this issue's surprising villain of the piece and he is not really a villain. Told in one issue, this issue is a breather between the drama and intrigue amongst the varied cast of Freak Force where the attention is on a kid who has been dumped upon by school bullies and a ferocious mom! BANG one morning he woke up and guess what? He got his freak on i.e. mutant powers kicked in and he discovered it the same way Peter Parker first found out about his organic webs in the movies

However, instead of being altruistic and mega-psycho planning to take over the city, kid goes out dishing some and before he knew it, things spiralled out of control into ... some deaths and mutilation. Freak Force being the shoot-first-ask-later type naturally came charging in and trying to apprehend the kid. Turns out, kid is tougher than them! That's why you see the Dragon on the cover! And heck it seems as if the Dragon is not as tough as this kid too!

In the end, it showed a different side of the Dragon as they managed to calm the situation and got the "villain" in custody. It's a simple, straightforward story but still a story worth some thinking over especially the ever-present issue of bullying in all its forms and long pent-up rage

Ratings: 8/10