This week’s main review is Battle Action #1, which launches with a pair of stories by big name creators. Plus, the Wednesday Comics Team has its usual rundown of the new #1s, endings and other notable issues from non-Big 2 publishers, all of which you can find below… enjoy!
Battle Action #1
Writers: Garth Ennis and Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Keith Burns and Chris Burnham
Colorists: Jason Wordie and Len O’Grady
Letterer: Rob Steen
Publisher: Rebellion
Review by Zack Quaintance
This week marks the release of Battle Action #1 from UK publisher Rebellion, kicking off a 10-issue maxi-series with a truly impressive list of creators. Battle Action you have a rich history in the UK, but you really don’t have to know that history — even a little bit — to jump into this new series. Indeed, the real draw here is that these are great stories by some of our best working creators.
This first issue is split into two. Story one is slated to continue throughout this series, and it’s scripted by Garth Ennis, with artwork by Keith Burns, colors by Jason Wordie and letters by Rob Steen. It’s a fighter pilot story, reuniting Ennis and Burns for the last tale of the character Johnny Red. Ennis is easily this generation’s finest writer of war comics. In fact, there’s not even really anyone else in the conversation, and the first story is as excellent as you might expect, using rich Burns and Wordie art in combination with Ennis’ attention to military detail and knack for poetic twists atop violent brutality. It’s a great hook, and I look forward to following it for the length of this run.
But all of that is to be expected. The second story is much more surprising, and, indeed, perhaps even unlikely. It sees writer Brian K. Vaughan doing his first work-for-hire comics in roughly a decade (the last non-creator-owned comic I remember him writing was 2016’s The Walking Dead:Alien). And to do it, he’s teamed here superstar artist Chris Burnham and colorist Len O’Grady, plus letters also by Steen.
Vaughan and Burnham’s story feels very 1980s teen-horror movie to me, filtered through the messier and darker realities of 2024. It’s almost odd to type that, given that this is a story set between the panels of Kids Rule OK, a comic created in the ’70s with a premise that involves all the adults dying out and leaving the world to kids. That is, of course, a fitting concept for Vaughan to work within, having penned his own apocolyptic plague story with Y: The Last Man.
What emerges from all of this, though, is one of the finest short comics I’ve read in a good long while. The script uses a structure that moves naturally back and forth through time to slowly dole out context. I sometimes dislike non-linear time construction in comics, but it really serves the narrative here, gaining its way in and serving to strengthen the big visual twists. And Burnham, unsurprisingly, absolutely nails every big visual set out here.
Overall, I think this story can be enjoyed on its surface as a tale of hubris, of a spoiled kid who smashes through everything around him without empathy or adversity…and then ultimately gets what he deserves. But, of course, beneath that is also a parable about America, specifically about the country’s attitude towards guns and violence, and the merits of both as a sole means of preservation and defense (rather than, I don’t know, cooperation and diplomacy ).
This story is, in short, a great read. Burnham is one of the best working artists, the script is as entertaining and it is poignant, and the ending is just darkly-perfect.
So yes, I absolutely loved Battle Action #1and highly recommend seeking it out this week.
Barbarella #1
Writer: Blake Northcott
Artist: Anna Morozova
Colorist: Werner Sanchez
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Review by D. Morris
There is a fine line when creating satire between insightful humor and a bland obvious statement. Smart satire really digs into its subject and tears it apart to create trenchant social commentary. Bad satire points out the obvious and that’s about it. The script by Blake Northcott for Barbarella #1 falls into the later rather than the former.
Satire has always been part of the character Barbarella’s DNA. Her sixties stories tended to feature the sexually liberated character in stories putting social conventions on trial. They were a new breed of science fiction adventure stories starring a woman in full command of her agency and desires. It’s a character that’s inspired countless artists over her sixty two year existence.
The Barbarella in this comic mostly just sleeps with a robot and gets trapped in a reality TV show trying to get off a planet. Meanwhile, something crazy happens on Earth that requires our heroine. But wouldn’t you know it, no one has escaped the planet Barbarella is currently trapped on.
Northcott’s script really does no justice to this iconic character. There’s the basic idea of the character. An independent operator who plays by her own rules as she challenges society’s ideas. Yet they’re stuck in an adventure that so far really challenges nothing. It’s a bland takedown, and that word is used very lightly, of fame and reality tv that doesn’t really work in this issue. Why is this planet glued to your screens? If you’re going to inevitably kill your star, what’s the need for keeping people trapped on this planet? There’s such little effort made to world build outside of putting a famous character in a cliche situation that it undermines whatever point the story wants to make.
At least the art by Anna Morozova it is pleasant to look at. The art here recalls the work of Mike and Laura Allredwith its elegant lines and pop art inspired colors. Morozova’s art here is well suited for the story that Northcott thinks they’re writing. It’s very sixties Space Age optimism with a lot of beautiful people exploring space. The script might not be as clever as it thinks it is but Morozova at least makes it fun to look at.
Godzilla Rivals: Mechagodzilla vs King Ghidorah #1
Writer: Tom Waltz
Artist: Casey Moloney
Colorist: Ronda Pattison
Inker: Maria Keane
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Review by Jared Bird
Two Kaiju icons clash head to head in this new one-shot from IDW, the latest as part of their ongoing Godzilla Rivals series. As tensions simmer, the people of Atlantis construct a mechanical version of Godzilla to combat their rival nation, the Lemurians. An Atlantean named Old Benny tries his best to stop conflict from exploding, but it’s far out of his control.
Written by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles legend Tom Waltzthis one-shot is a dense read. It’s got a lot of lore and history conveyed in a short page count, but it’s praise-worthy that it never feels too difficult to understand. Atlantis is an interesting setting in the Godzilla mythos, and those unfamiliar might find it baffling, but it makes for interesting reading in this one-shot as well. The Lemurians are far less well explored, but they still get some interesting concepts thrown their way, particularly their worship of the legendary King Ghidorah. Old Benny is a solid protagonist for this cautionary tale type of story, but does feel a tad bit stereotypical for a narrative like this. Waltz does his best to flesh him out, but it’s of course limited by the one-shot nature.
The artwork by Casey Moloney It’s fun and bubbly. It has a modern, digital look that works, especially the design for Mechagodzilla. I think that some more intimate character beats are missing, but Moloney has a lot on his plate and various styles to try and get across, doing a good job. The design for Atlantis is cool, sleek and interesting, and King Ghidorah looks fantastic as a brooding monstrosity. When Moloney is presented with the chance to draw Godzilla himself, he knocks it out of the park.
Overall, Mechagodzilla vs King Ghidorah is another fun one-shot in the Godzilla Rivals series, with lots of fun and interesting ideas, plus a pretty awesome Kaiju fight once everything kicks off. It’s a cautionary tale with a mythic tone that works well for Godzilla and taps into part of the lore that’s really fascinating. It’s sure to be liked by Godzilla fans, but might come across a little alienating to those who had no idea that yes, Godzilla has Atlantis too.
Wednesday Comics Reviews
The Creeping Below #1 (BOOM! Studios): Tourist goes to a travel destination. Tourist falls in with a hostile crowd against all logic and normal travel precautions. Tourist gets ritualistically murdered to the local mythology. This is where The Creeping Below lives, although the journey is less entertaining in action than on paper. Brian Azzarello can be a hit or miss crime author where his hits nail the zeitgeist afflicting modern sensibility and his misses are nearly incoherent scenes of folks in bars cool-talking it; this is the latter. Similarly, Vanesa Del Reywho energizes page layouts at the cost of easy readability, ranges from effective staging to incoherent shot selections. While Del Rey here is more the former, BOOM! has a nasty habit of placing watermarks that obfuscate the entire art to a point where reviewers cannot faithfully review the book in my honest opinion, and it’s probably at its most intolerable here. Sorry! Hilary Jenkins matches Del Rey’s chalky inks with a textured brush that brings a 70s horror tooth to the pages. Strangely comparable, Andworld Design goes 70s EC Comics with their sfx choices, but let’s highlight how they space the handful of song lyrics in this issue to a rhythmic cadence that reinforces the music scene! Will I ever read this again? I most assuredly will not, but if you love revenge stories and black metal as an aesthetic, then maybe this song is for you. —Beau Q.
The Prog Report
2000AD Prog 2402 (Rebellion Publishing): Remember at the start of this column when I wrote about Garth Ennis and war comics? Well, this week’s Prog has more from Ennis, which makes three this week when taken with Get Fury #6a finale for the writer’s recent Punisher-in-Vietnam story for Marvel. But what we get here is the second part of a new Rogue Trooper story that sees Ennis re-teaming with artist Patrick Goddard, and letterer Rob Steen, after the must-read Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley. This is a good thing. I’ve found some of the recent Rogue Trooper stories in the Prog — the ones not involving Ennis — to deal far more in surface action than any kind of larger meaning around war. Already in this second chapter, however, it feels like this story has more to say. It’s tough to tell exactly where it’s headed, but it seems to be dealing with the cost to soldiers and the ways it’s sort of managed by decision-makers far from the actual violence. There’s also a theme around war technologies, all bored out with interesting action sequences. So far, this feels like a worthy — albeit quite different — follow-up to Blighty Valley. As always, you can nab a digital copy of this week’s Prog here. —Zack Quaintance
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