The Strange Talent of Luther Strode 5

Writer: Justin Jordan

Artist: Tradd Moore

Publisher: Image Comics

Well it’s time once again for an extremely violent blood and internal organ soaked episode of “The Strange Talent of Luther Strode”. I think there’s some kind of competition between this comic and “Kick Ass” for most violent comic ever. There should be some kind of imaginative commemorative Sam Peckinpah award that they’re vying for each month.

The thoroughly distasteful man, who kicked Strode’s ass last issue and who is the curator/”librarian” of the “Heracles Method” or a Charles Atlas/Count Dante book that actually works as billed, is still around and this time he’s torturing Luther Strode’s friends and mum. Here he is threatening Luther’s mom and sidekick or Aunt May and the early Norman Osborne if you’re up on your comic book iconography.

Here’s the scene:

One of the things that stood out for me is the resourcefulness of Luther’s scoobie friends. They’re actually pretty impressive. Luther’s tiny sidekick, seen above, actually puts up as good as a fight as you can against a super powered being. He even manages to do this to the bad guy:

And that’s after he had most of the fingers of his left hand cut off. Of course as the scene suggests he’s in for more torture. Meanwhile, our hero Luther Strode is defending his sexually aggressive girlfriend from a gang of vicious drug dealers. One of the questions about the Heracles method is how much punishment these guys can take. We find out that Luther can survive multiple gunshots to the chest. It’s not clear how he does this or how the villain above can survive a knife thrust to the throat. They have to be tapping into some kind of mystical energy or something. I’m sure it will be explained next issue.

We also find out that Luther’s girlfriend is also pretty tough as she goads her attackers into hitting her harder so she can find a means of escape. We also see Luther kill for the first time. This looks to be self defense but it’s still pretty brutal with Stroke ripping off people’s faces and punching through bodies. Is he fulfilling the promise of his “strange talent”? Or is this some kind of training for the moment when he can kill anyone with barely a second thought? I guess I’m curious as to how this will all be resolved next issue. I presume it ends with Luther Strode killing the “librarian” but you never know.

Oh, here’s the final bloody scene in case you’re wondering if the competition is hot and heavy for this month’s make believe Peckinpah award.

Oh and if you look closely around his pants area it also appears that he’s had his fingers cut off (updated see below) been raped. Keep it classy fellas. Verdict: 3.9 out of 5 stars. The story does seem to be moving along toward something interesting if not entirely original.

3/9/2012 updated – Tradd Moore reached out to us over twitter to let us know that he had not been raped, but that he had had his fingers cut off and it had bled all over his pants. But it really did look like a raping and not a cutting off his fingers. Thanks Tradd for dropping us a note, we do strive to be somewhat accurate with our reviews, and we do appreciate corrections when they matter. In this case it mattered.You can pretty much so see on the right hand, that yep, the fingers are missing.

Related articles

• The Strange Talent of Luther Strode 4 (comicsforge.com)
• The Strange Talent of Luther Strode 2 by Justin Jordan and Tradd Moore (comicsforge.com)
• The Strange Talent of Luther Strode Issue 3 (comicsforge.com)