Final Thoughts:Ka-Zar: Lord of the Savage Land #4 gives readers a little background on the main villain and some cool action set pieces showcasing Ka-Zar's ever-expanding set of powers. However, nearly every character is turning out to be unlikable on some level, and the creators are making it very difficult to root for anyone, much less care what happens to them. Read Full Review

The penultimate issue of Ka-Zar is pretty inconsistent, lots of hits and misses throughout these pages (even though the art is stellar throughout). Read Full Review

Well, I really liked the art shift. Here are all the natural and biomechanical details I was hoping for, and plus, the action scenes are wonderfully dynamic.

On the writing front, though, I'm losing faith in this all making sense in the end. There are occasionally vivid bits of dialogue, but the big picture remains frustratingly opaque.

What it reminds me of -- and this is not a good association -- is Marvel's lesser auteur comics from the 70s. Stuff like Deathlok, Killraven, the more incoherent of Steve Gerber's works. Like those old comics, this one dumps flat superheroes into a bubbling stew of weirdness, unreality, and symbolism. But they're just left there, floundering, without clear themes to tie the story together and establish real meaning (and without enough compelling character work to excuse the confusing plot).

It's "weird for the sake of weird" storytelling, satisfying entertainment only for the heavily-stoned.
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This issue has a lot packed into it. A lot of exposition finally comes, and the result is a poorly paced issue that is a slight slog.