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The Un-Men: Get Your Freak On by John Whalen and Mike Hawthorne
01/07/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Titan/Vertigo. 127 page graphic novel. Price: £ 8.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84576-748-8. Buy The Un-Men: Get Your Freak On in the USA - or Buy The Un-Men: Get Your Freak On in the UK  check out website: www.titanbooks.comand www.dccomics.com
To say that 'The Un-Men' first five issues in this book series owes itself to Josef Mengele, the Nazi 'medical' officer isn't too far from the truth, especially as the chief surgeon here, Dr. Von Schadel, comes equipped with a German accent. Welcome to the town of Aberrance, USA, set on the DC Earth with hybrid surgery being the norm for its inhabitants. Just don't believe what you see in this book has any bearing on reality or you might well be questioning who operated on Von Schadel himself.
If anything, the designs of the characters in this comicbook appear to be the product of a warped or possibly sick mind although, saying that, reading the story itself ends up kind of compelling because you want to know how it ends. Considering its set under DC's Vertigo by-line, this isn't quite in the general super-hero arena and if you're an adult, I wouldn't let your young children loose on this title.
Aberrance is going national. On television that is in a show called 'American Freak'. Although I would suspect that this means the satellite channels than the main networks. The intention of displaying some of the 'gaffs' or freaks that inhabit the town. This segregation not only applies to those looking odd but those Von Schadel makes that way.
There is also some objection to this media circus and when one of the rebel-rousers, Bertoldt The Amazing Gill-Boy, an armless, legless (that's his normal state) body turns up hundreds of miles from the town, an albino FBI agent called Kilcrop, not a resident, is sent to investigate and find out what is going on. Through the various characters he meets, you join Kilcrop as he pieces things together along with several distracting red herrings along the way.
I have to confess under normal conditions that this isn't really the type of book that I would be buying off the shelf but on the other hand, I can also be totally objective about it as well cos I went into it with no preconceived notions. I wasn't even a great 'Swamp-Thing' reader where much of this is derived from. Saying that, purely in story context, it reads very well with an array of off-beat, malicious people and occasionally some nice ones thrown into the mix, assuming they survive. I would classify this book as read with caution but if you know the type of material then you're going to enjoy this.
GF Willmetts
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