World Comic Book Review

26th March 2024

Renato Jones: The One % #1, 2, 3 (review)

“Renato Jones: The One %” #1, 2, 3 (review)
(Image Comics, 2016)
Writer: Kaare Kyle Andrews

This is yet another remarkable title from Image Comics, the innovators in American comic books.

The concept of billionaire vigilantes seeking to avenge their parents’ death is well-known in the superhero genre. Yet never has the concept been stripped to such a granular level and imbued with a sense of angry class warfare. If indeed this is some distillation of the Batman formula, it is barely recognisable as such.

Mr Andrews begins his attack on the concept of servants and masters with the front cover. “Created, Written, Drawn, Colored And Owned By Kaare Kyle Andrews”‘ reads the byline, with the word “owned” emphasised in red text. Mr Andrews wishes readers to know that his creative efforts on the title automatically vest in the publisher, and that he is not a hired man servicing a character property. There is a sense, intentional or otherwise, that to buy the book is to directly support the creator.

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She Wolf – Spell Number One: Shapeshifting

“She Wolf – Spell Number One: Shapeshifting”
(Image Comics, June 2016)
Writer: Rich Tommaso

This comic is something more than a suburban tale of teenage witchcraft, but it is hard to define what that advancement on such a well-worked concept is.

“She Wolf” is a story about a teenager living near a place called Tomahawk Lake and attending Sparta High School. The North American location is not otherwise described but it is all suggestive of a semi-rural location, an ordinary American town located near the woods. The teenager, Gabby, bears scars down her face. These are apparently the consequence of being raked by a werewolf named Brian, a classmate.

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Pretty Deadly #10 (review)

Pretty Deadly #10 (review)
(Image Comics, June 2016)
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick

A dark, strange comic which started as an infusion of American mysticism and the Western cowboy tradition, “Pretty Deadly” was as stark on the comics landscape as a hoodoo in the Sonora.

An example of this strangeness is the narrative. It is a conversation between a decomposing rabbit, shot in the head and its brains and skull exposed and twisted by the impact of the bullet, and a butterfly. The horror of the rabbit’s decaying appearance is juxtaposed with the gentle and patient dialogue. The two creatures ramble, Hemingway on a calm day, a whimsical lull punctuated by eerie horror and a crescendo of violence, and the rabbit disturbingly rots away during the course of the plot, whittled down to a ruined skeleton.

This title has been the subject of controversy. Yet commercially it has been extremely successful, a happy by-product of the quality and novelty of this work.

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Alpha King #1 (review)

Alpha King #1 (review)
(Image Comics, May 2016)
Writers: Brian Azzarello, Nick Floyd and Simon Bisley

Promotional tie-ins between comics and various goods and services are commonplace. Most usually these tie-ins are linked to toys or movies. Some of these have been exceptionally successful, for example, “Transformers”.

More blatant, perhaps, is various American publishers’ efforts to promote cars. In one instance, “Rush City” (DC Comics, 2006-2007), the comic’s existence was to facilitate the promotion of the Pontiac Solstice, a sports car. Dark Horse Comics’ “The Hire” (2004) similarly promoted BMW, a car brand. The Wall Street Journal has reported on Marvel Comics’ efforts to promote DaimlerChrysler AG’s Dodge Caliber car in various titles including Spider-man, and also on Marvel Comics’ deal with Nike’s “swoosh” logo, whereby Marvel Comics undertook to feature the logo within various comic titles over a four-to-six month period.

“Alpha King” is an unabashed promotional tie-in. The goods promoted by the comic, however, are novel: a microbrewery called 3 Floyds Brewing Company uses the comic to promote the brewer’s pale ale in the context of an interdimensional war involving sword-wielding demons. This is as ridiculous as it sounds. The plot begins with an amusing-enough gag: some soldiers in an army of ogres discuss Tolkein, before being rallied to a siege. The story then jumps to a bearded brewer in modern day America, who encourages kids to slip around the corner of the vat and sneak in consumption of the beer.

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