I’m a Jim Mahfood guy. I like his comics and while his stories don’t always go somewhere, I enjoy his art and style enough to stick around and always check out what he has going on. I’m not a Joe Casey guy. I wish that I could say that he’s hit or miss with me, but he’s a miss every time. I don’t harsh on his books usually because of this, because I already know that they’re not for me, but this was Miami Vice… how the fuck could I not check it out? I wanted to like this comic. Hell I should have liked this comic. Mahfood on art should have been enough, but it wasn’t. It’s not that I don’t see what they’re doing with their reimagining of the series and added flair of fantasy. It’s that it didn’t work. It didn’t grab me by the collar and say, “Love me! Love me!” Instead it ate the last cookie when you know it had the other nine before it. It’s a goddamn cookie hog.

Really the best way I can sum this up is by mimicking Castillo…

“Sonny, Rico, get your goddamn asses in here and explain this comic to me! No don’t talk you just sit your asses there. Really poorly constructed undercover vice work? Really? You’re telling me that drug cartels are still so dumb that they fall for the new guys in the game with a rap sheet a mile long? Also Zombies? That could have been cool except it wasn’t and no one really acknowledged what the fuck happened! And what was the bit with my daughter? Did anyone care about that or really understand why I was such a heated ass while basically asking you to break the law? Did you break the law a lot on the show? I don’t remember. I just remember canvas slip-ons were popular at the time…”

That’s basically the entire comic. If that wasn’t entertaining then the chances of your liking the actual comic are pretty slim. This remix could have been cool. It could have been goofy, it could have been serious, and it could have been super weird; instead it was just a shoulder shrug. I think it’s trying to be funny, but it fails on all levels. Especially when zombies show up and are then handled by a third party in less than a page. It was at that point that I knew I only had apathy for this comic and that bummed me out.

There’s a lot of talking and if there’s one thing that I don’t like about Mahfood’s style it’s his lettering. It’s just plain difficult to read. Add that fact that there’s a lot to read and you’ll basically want to stop reading it and just look at the art.

Sonny and Tubbs obviously don’t look like the characters from the show and because we don’t really have an idea of when this comic is supposed to take place, you know since it doesn’t look like any one particular era in human history. I guess they kind of look 80s-ish… no they don’t. That was me trying to be nice, but really other than the colors they’re wearing they could be anyone. Their hair sucks, their faces suck, their sunglasses suck. They’re hard to look at it is what I’m getting out. Everyone else and the entire rest of the book is a visual delight, but when I can’t stand looking at the main characters there’s a problem with their design.

I won’t even be back for the next issue out of curiosity. That’s what got me this time, but I kind of knew I would hate it based on the character designs. Still, it was Mahfood and I wanted to give him a chance. Maybe he would be the missing link that unlocked Joe Casey’s work for me… he was not. If you liked the show I wouldn't recommend reading this comic, you’ll probably really hate it since the similarities end in the title just before the word “Remix.”

Lastly I know that IDW didn't have anything to do with the editing or production of this comic that Lion Forge was the facilitator, but their name is on it. And it’s exactly the licensed crap that people think of when they think of IDW. But hey that’s their business model and it continues to work so what do I know right? *cough*variants*cough*

Score: WTF

Miami Vice: Remix #1 Writer: Joe Casey Artist: Jim Mahfood Publisher: IDW/Lion Forge Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 3/25/15 Format: Print/Digital