IN REVIEW: LORD OF THE JUNGLE (2022-) #5

Synopsis: In order to save his tribe of apes and other jungle wildlife from being hauled back to England, Tarzan will journey to the Valley of Mists. Shaw’s real goal is to see of the Legend of Lost Jewels is true, and if so, to retrieve them and enrich himself. But… who… and what kind of threat will Tarzan find in the Valley?

The Story

In the Jungle of 1959. Tarzan, having escaped from the local authorities makes his way through the Jungle in order to reach the Valley of Mists and fulfill a promise that he made decades earlier. Meanwhile, Bouanga continues to narrate the past events and how Tarzan’s first meeting with the Tribe that lived in the Valley very nearly got him killed. And how close it came for Bouanga and Tarzan’s ape family.

The Artwork

Benito Gallego artwork and Francesco Segala colors continue to work well together and provide some really atmospheric settings for the story. I really enjoyed the panels where we see the older present-day Tarzan climbing down the mountain in order to return the precious stones to the people that live in the Valley. I also love the panels where we see the Tribe from the Valley capture him and very nearly pass a death sentence on him. The panel where we see Tarzan tied to a tree that is about to be set on fire is nicely drawn and captures the danger that Tarzan is in brilliantly.

Overall

This continues to be a strong story in which we finally learn why Tarzan returned to Africa. I loved the whole storyline with The Valley of the Mist as it felt like a storyline that we could have well seen in some of the older Tarzan movies, but without the casual racism that many of the older Johnny Weissmuller may have had in them. It’s been a minute since I last watched one of the older incarnations. But there is little doubt that racism would have featured somewhere in them due to the social mores of that period not being as evolved as now.

Overall. This works pretty well as a penultimate chapter to this story arc.