By Dustin Cabeal

I was a big fan of Nick Marino and Daniel Arruda Massa’s Holy F*ck and its aptly named sequel Holy F*cked. Of course, I was going to check out Cougar and Cub which is a fairly obvious parody of Batman and Robin.

In telling you that, I realized that I told you everything that you really need to know about the issue. It’s a “what if” they slept together kinda thing and it’s ripe with double entendres, Ren and Stimpy style gross-out humor. What works for the story is the fact that it doesn’t start off knee deep in the sex, but rather after a humorous encounter with it, our two heroes engage in fornication.

The art is where the story shines brightest. Arruda Massa’s style is perfect for the story and in particular the gross-out humor. None of the kisses are romantic… they’re all pretty disgusting, but I laughed every time. Arruda Massa’s style accentuates the facial expressions and adds not just to the humor, but to the characterizations as well.

There is a backup story to the issue which takes a more retro serious approach to the two characters. The artwork by Arruda Massa is different than his work on the rest of the series, but still a great fit. Writer Rosie Knight brings her own voice but meshes well with the universe.

There’s not much else to say about the story. It’s funny; it’s not a gut-buster at the moment, and while this is a strong first issue, it’s not fantastic. I’ll be back for future issues for sure, but I’m not chomping at the bit as I was from the previous two series from these creators. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Maybe I’m just burnt out on superhero homage.

Score: 3/5

Cougar and Cub #1
Writers: Nick Marino, Rosie Knight
Artist: Daniel Arruda Massa
Publisher: Danger Zone