Crocodile Black Review | Phillip Kennedy Johnson and SOM blend Noir with Psychological Horror

Crocodile Black Cover D By Andrea Sorrentino

Phillip Kennedy Johnson is one of the great voices in comics today and with Crocodile Black, he and artist SOM give readers a number 1 issue that leaves you wanting more.

Crocodile Black follows Danny, a delivery guy struggling with the world around him as it grips with the pandemic—until he encounters something bleak during a delivery.

Kennedy Johnson who revitalized Superman with Action Comics and is smashing it up with The Incredible Hulk at Marvel tackles the real life emotional threads of a person making their way thought a world reeling from a pandemic.

Danny is someone who feels trapped in his own home and even when he is outside, feels most comfortable wearing a mask—not for safety but to keep the rest of the world out.

After 2020, it is honestly hard to consume media about pandemics because it went from the stuff you read about in books to the here and now. Kennedy Johnson and SOM deviate from some of the mistakes of early media that used the pandemic as a plot device, which focused more on the spectacle of it versus the emotional toll that takes.

Danny’s dissolution with the world is what actual people have gone through as they navigate a society they feel is not for them and with this emotional center, Crocodile Black draws you in.

It is billed as a crime-noir, but it has a psychological horror bend to it that makes you question what you’re seeing and reading. As Danny is having a hard time at home, a man in black crocodile boots is just getting comfortable in his skin, killing mobsters around the city.

The contrast between the two is played well through SOM’s art, as you have Danny who is unsure of himself and Crocodile who swaggers confidently in blood soaked boots.

Hard to say exactly where the story is going, but hard to not be intrigued with the world of Crocodile Black.

Issue 1 is OUT NOW.