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image comics reviews 6-18-25 - gi joe 8
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Image Comics reviews 6/18/25 – GI Joe 8, Blood and Thunder 2

Jeffrey Lyles , , , , , ,
Invincible Universe Battle Beast 2

battle beast 2

Battle Beast is very quickly shaping up to being one of the titles I most look forward to reading every month. It’s a chaotic blend of blood, guts, entrails, but hidden deep within the gory carnage is a subtle amount of heart and a ton of humor.

Following his opening salvo against the Colossus, Battle Beast is in search of a new potential opponent. One who can either provide him with a worthy combatant or offer him a glorious death. There’s no in between with his objective here. To keep the story fresher than Battle Beast finds a new punching bag, dismembers them, wash and repeat, he’s introduced some very fun supporting characters.

The first is Prince Salaka, who was being devoured by the Colossus when Battle Beast killed him. Prince Salaka offers Battle Beast a potential worthy opponent in the Colossus’ sister, The Juggernaut, who has taken over his home planet. The siblings clearly are a nod to Kirkman’s appreciation of a certain merry band of marvelous mutants, no?

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Before returning to his home planet, Salaka hopes to restore his body to look more presentable to his people. This provides the other main supporting character — The Ship that Battle Beast now occupies the opportunity to keep making good on its promise to avenge the crew Battle Beast slaughtered. How can a sentient ship accomplish that? By constantly setting Battle Beast up and pitting him in scenarios where he could potentially get killed. To get Salaka a new body, Battle Beast has to compete in the planet’s Blood Arena.

This gives artist Ryan Ottley the chance to go off with some wild intense battle sequences. Ottley unleashes a fresh can of kick and kill-tail action. The spectacularly gory detail is done in almost a Looney Tunes fashion, so the horrors Battle Beast inflicts on his victims comes off more humorous than frightening.

Colorist Annalisa Leoni keeps the bloody battles looking messy in the cleanest way possible thanks to bold, bright colors that provide a nearly 3D component to the art. Letterer Rus Wooton gets to be plenty creative with the various species in this realm allowing for different fonts, text sizes and unique sound effects.

Battle Beast 2 shows this is a title that fans of action and mayhem need to look no further for their monthly fix. This is a fun title that at this point can’t be missed.

Rating: 10 out of 10

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