Bug Wars vol. 1: Lost in the Yard

Slade Slaymaker loves bugs just like his dad did.  This is in spite of the fact that his dad died because of them and set his brother Syd against them as a result.  Now he, his brother, and mother have moved into their dad’s old house and are trying to get it back in shape.  Syd is determined to make it insect-free as a result and Slade winds up retreating to the basement after his brother tries to destroy his bug collection.  It’s there that he finds a fractured medallion that shrinks him down to the size of a bug (constantly) and gives him incredible strength (occasionally).  He also finds that there’s an entire bug civilization living in his backyard with different species living under an uneasy truce that could collapse any minute.

“Honey I Shrunk the Kids” meets “Conan” is certainly a distinctive premise, and appropriately it comes from two creators who delivered some good comics featuring the latter when he returned to Marvel:  Writer Jason Aaron and artist Mahmud Asrar.  The creators play this setup to the hilt with Slade’ journey kicking into high gear in the second issue as he escapes from an arena with a spider witch and finds out that everything is prepared to unite against the threat faced by his brother “The Annihirizer.”  All of the usual extra-ness of Aaron’s style is still present here, but it’s not as distracting as you’d think with it feeling appropriate to the wild world he’s created here which also features a surprising amount of worldbuilding done as well.

Asrar’s art is detailed and energetic, and most importantly makes the insect cast recognizable as humanoid versions of the bugs they’re meant to represent.  He’s also great at representing the sense of scale that this story demands, as well as depicting some of the crazier things such as the metaphysical journey Slade goes on inside the Hanging Gardens of Wyrdweb.  That said, neither creator can quite get past the fact that its young adult protagonist and the “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” part of the premise give the feeling that it’s meant for a younger audience despite how all the profanity and violence make it emphatically clear that it’s meant for a mature one.  Still, it does wrap up solidly at the end with enough closure to satisfy while leaving the door open for future stories, and that certainly puts it ahead of Aaron’s other MIA creator-owned projects at Image.