(I originally read these comics in early December 2016)
It's 1949 and the army is deployed to investigate strange goings-on in the town of Bucksnort, Texas. Upon reaching the town, Captain Alex Stoner and co. discover a scene of carnage with human remains assembled into a shrine and alien symbols painted on the walls in blood, with just one pregnant survivor. Twenty years later, army photographer and Capt. Stoner's adopted son Ray's true heritage rears its hulking, horned head when he's ambushed in the steaming jungle of Laos. It's only after the war, however, when he stumbles upon a hidden city that he discovers the truth; that he's 'Breed', a human/demon hybrid, and, furthermore, he's the one who it's foretold will destroy all demonkind, making him a constant target of assassins.
Jim Starlin crafts an interesting mythology here, one that only continues to expand throughout the three series. His art has a rough-hewn, Severin-like quality but is undermined with naff Photoshop effects. The speech balloons and captions are also rife with typos.
The second series finds Stoner leaving a Nepalese temple and immediately coming under attack by 'brethren'. Dispatching them easily, he disappears to fight in a series of South American wars as a mercenary and to hone his skills as the story moves on into the '80s. However, it's not long till the brethren catch up with him and he must choose on whose side to fight. This chapter concludes with an exciting confrontation among the spires and citadels of the hidden city, Elsewhere. This is the weakest of the three series, with Starlin's art looking rushed. The Photoshop effects dominate and make the pages look sparse. They must have been cutting edge back in the mid-'90s, but have dated badly.
The third and final series, produced by Starlin after a sixteen year break, really kicks things up a notch. This is a much denser read, as though he had a lot of story left to tell in only a set seven issues. Unfortunately, much exposition comes in the way of an extended flashback in the first half of the book that does rob the story of some immediacy. Stoner, in his demon form, comes to the rescue of a woman whose face he's been seeing for years in the still waters of Elsewhere, and her dying, ten year-old son. Just how they figure into what's going on is teased and hinted at until late in the series when Stoner and other guest-starring Starlin creations such as Vanth Dreadstar, Oedi and Kid Kosmos must face a final battle. Things get trippy here with Stoner fighting on a psychic plane of mind-bending, Ditko-esque weirdness, and Starlin renders it all beautifully with no short cuts taken. His art is more refined and detailed here than previously, with less in the way of garish Photoshop effects, though they're still present.
I found the 'Breed saga in its entirety to be pretty satisfying stuff.
'Breed (1994) # 1-6 are collected in:
Softcover:
'Breed II (1994) # 1-6 are collected in:
Softcover:
'Breed III (2011) # 1-7 are collected in:
Softcover:
