Independent super hero titles are usually something I avoid. Mostly because there’s just so much superheroing in the comic world that I would rather read something else. That is unless it’s a comedy. Now with that you probably think I read Deadpool, but I largely find that title to be anti-funny or anti-fun which is to say that it kills my joy. Eccentrix is a superhero comedy… independently created and released by Broken Icon Comics… and doesn’t kill joy. The thing about any comedy is that the story can’t be bullshit. The best way to tell if the story is bullshit is if you remove all the humor from the story, does the issue still work? Well with Eccentrix it does. It actually creates a complex and competent world. There’s a history to the world and the characters. In fact, there’s a shared history that you would find at something the “big two” produce which is what benefits Eccentrix, it feels familiar, but it isn’t.
The story follows the main character Zipman which I can only assume is a bit of a tip of the hat to The Simpsons for reasons that I won’t reveal. He’s not really an anti-hero, but he kind of is. Basically he’s more interested in stopping bad guys and saying puns than he is with preserving human life. He’s not out to stop crime because it helps people, but rather he enjoys stopping crime.
This is very apparent in our opening scene in which he stops a mugging of a man’s watch and kills the crook because he ran away before he could figure out a time/watch pun that was acceptable for him. This leads us into the other characters that populate the world, a Justice League of Avengers type group that has an obvious problem with Zipman just killing people. Which only leads to more hilarity on Zipman’s side of the story.
The comedy works here because it’s just the result of the character. Zipman is clueless and maybe heartless. He just wants to have fun while stopping crime because what else is he going to do really? He’s so overpowered that there’s really nothing else he can do and that makes his journey funny. Exploding cow funny.
The art from Dumo is a great fit for the story. Comedy in comics lives and dies on the art. You can have the best looking art in the world, but if the personality doesn’t match the writing (in this case coming from James Maddox), then the art can tank the issue. For Eccentrix the art is serious all the time because the setting of the world is serious, but then Zipman is kind of goofy looking and that to plays to the humor… especially at the end of the issue.
Eccentrix is sadly only a one-shot. Surprisingly I would read this if it wasn’t a comedy because Maddox does an incredible job of building the world and characters all in one issue, but good comedy in comics is hard to find so I’m cool either way. The forward by James Asmus isn’t bullshit in case you’re wondering. I read it after the issue and was like, “this dude nails it.” Which also made my review difficult because I didn’t want to copy any of his points. My point though, is that this is actually a really fun and well-plotted superhero comic book. The kind that reminds you why every once in a while it’s good to dabble in the genre and that more of it should be funny.
Score: 4/5
Eccentrix #1 Writer: James Maddox Artist: Dumo Publisher: Broken Icon Comics Price: $5.00 Release Date: 7/1/15 Format: One-Shot; Digital
Listen to Dustin talk about Eccentrix #1 on the CBMFP!