When i heard Tim Seeley was writing Croc for the villain month issue, i was extremely excited and happy, Tim seeley is a great writer who has worked on one of my personal favorite series called hack/slash. But now here is the thing, Image comics are vastly different in Genre and style when it is compared to Marvel comics, and Hack/Slash is am immature yet brilliantly written series. So i was slightly skeptical and worried when i contemplated on the subject for a while. Plus, while the villain Month had it's ups and downs, it overall was an extreme disappointment. But now that i HAVE read this, i can say that this issue, is my absolute favorite from anything that has been published in this month.

First of all, The storytelling by the art was great and the amount of effort put into it is quite vivid. Crocs design has never looked better, considering he looks like a monster, someone you'd absolutely be afraid of. Sure you won't actually get scared, but i'll have to admit that the issue had some spine chilling moments, and you'd actually imagine what'd you think if you were in the same situation. Plus the way the story unfolds really helps the "Predator" factors expressed in this issue. Plus i'm kind of glad they went with the Giant, short mouth version of Jones here, because i reminds me of the Arkham Asylum version of him.

Moving On, Tim Seeley really upped the game here. I honestly did not expect for this much depth to be put into a character like croc. Don't get me wrong, i love Jones but his popularity isn't great which means that it was less likely for him to have an excellent Story, However i stand corrected, for which i am happy. As the Name Implies, Tim Chose the concept of Atavism to represent croc. Atavism is a word defined as "reverting to your ancestral type", which implies that developed organism revert and act the way they use to generations before. Now , before you understand why atavism is important here, and why this was a great evolution of crocs character, we need to analyse Gothams Status. It's a well known concept, that when the chips are down, people become savage and forget the rules which society has placed on them. This is Exactly the state Gotham is in, The Streets are filled with people gone completely savage out of pure fear , and therefore cause mass chaos around in the city. Croc, embodies this savagery, because as he himself states that he is a Monster, only because it is what people forced him to be, they pushed him into the corner, and as a result of his hard life, full of hatred and betrayal , he became the very beast the people accused him to be. I also simply adored how Croc actually emphasizes on how Humans become weak when they experience atavism, while animals, even chicken, become much stronger, So when the morals were off, he was the king, he was the Fit for Survival, while the others, humans, Became pathetic mice who were meant to be eaten. Am-a-zing!

Crocs characterization is something to be proud of as well. I was extremely happy that Tim decided to go with the street-wise, witty, Monstrous version of croc. You can clrealy see that the Guy is an absolute monster, but at the same time, through the narrative you see how smart he is too, and he actually knows exactly what he is doing. I wish croc was written more like this, because quite frankly this was actually really good. Sure it had a few moments were the quality didn't match the rest of the issue( mainly some of the flash backs), but it's a small price to pay when a writer manages to reflect the state of the whole city through ONE character specifically. That truly takes skill, and i loved it.

This has been my favorite issue thus far, it's kinda ironic that The Most of batmans mega villains got terrible/mediocre issue, while croc, someone who has been mistreated for a long time, actually got a chance to shine in the way that he deserves. Pick this up.

Recommendation: Duh. yes!