Alex De Campi

After a truly horrible night in the last issue, the main players in No Mercy see their situation as it is: bleak. Sitting in the middle of nowhere with nothing (substantial) to eat and no water to drink puts them on edge. The mostly silent Kira goes on a tirade against Gina but Travis is there to help her through such an emotional event. He’s such a help that they decide to run into the wilderness by themselves. It’s almost too easy to write them off as coyote fodder. Hopefully they’ll reappear as their polarities make them some extremely entertaining characters.

It didn’t take long for the Predator to cut a swath through the idyllic town of Riverdale. It’s to be expected; it’s literally in the name. “Predator.” After taking out most of the background Archie characters, the alien menace has it’s sights set on the central Archie gang. However, after last issue’s bloody events, how long do Archie and his friends have left?

This is my overview of the Image Comics Spotlight panel. I get there a few minutes early to make sure I can hear everything and have a good line of sight to take pictures for potential announcements. While I wait for the panel to start, I look around the open ended theater to check the turnout for the panel. The first few rows are filled to capacity already, and people try and find seats where they can. The panel begins and our panelists for the day are Adam McGovern (Nightworld writer), Becky Cloonan (Southern Cross writer), Brandon Graham (8House: Arclight writer), Valentine De Landro (Bitch Planet artist), and Alex de Campi (No Mercy writer).

So much seems to happen in No Mercy it’s surprising it isn’t filled with more pages than other books. At the same time the storyline is simple enough to really make the reader connect with the characters and want the moral ones to succeed. This issue is simple enough: Chad and Charlene are trying to escape from the coyotes while stranded in the bus. They’re aided by The Quiet Kid, who we learn is named Anthony and everyone’s favorite modern hippie, Travis.

Now that we’re halfway through Archie Vs. Predator, it would make sense for pieces of the overarching plot to begin to take shape. If Archie Vs. Predator was a bad comic, it would fail to accomplish this task. If it was a good comic, it would already have done it and be content with itself. As it happens, Archie Vs. Predator is not simply a good or a bad comic, but an absolutely insane one. Our outdated notions of “quality” have no bearing on a comic such as this, and require a more in-depth analysis in order to fully understand it’s secrets.

When all the dust settles from issue #1, No Mercy #2 picks up with the survivors from the bus crash trying to work together to fend off all possible threats. First there are a few members of the party who are badly injured or even dead. The dead bodies bring the biggest threat, coyotes.

Never ever let it be said that Archie Comics is content to let their flagship character stagnate. Coming off of the tragic death of Archie Andrews in Life with Archie, and the atmospheric, zombie-infested Afterlife with Archie, you’d think that Archie Comics would want to take a breather, and make something a little more traditional. Instead, they’ve teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to set Archie on a collision course with el diablo cazador de hombres – the devil that hunts men – in Archie vs. Predator.

Ah, the summer before college is a wondrous time for all nervous freshman. The characters in Alex De Campi’s new book, No Mercy, decide to get ahead of their soon-to-be Princeton classmates by going to “Mataguey” to help build some houses; what could go wrong? The only perilous thing that happens is the bus running off the road and crashing into a ditch. No problems here.