Lately there are several styles of comics that I’ve been gravitating towards. There’s always that need and desire to have a story that is both high in quality in terms of writing and art. A story that moves you and at the same time manages to reveal the magic of this medium. I will always gravitate towards that. Then there’s comics that are gritty, still wonderful in their own right, but just have this extra bit to the art. The story is well-put together, but the focus is on humor and being over the top. The latter is frankly something I could read a lot more of… enter The Fist. The first issue of The Fist is frankly fucking amazing. I know, you've been waiting for this since I talked about it on the podcast.
We meet out titular character… the Fist, as he enters an intergalactic fighting tournament. He’s told he can’t bring his spaceship inside. His response to this is to punch through the very thick glass separating him and the man informing him of such nonsense and educate said man that his ship is his plus one. Later, we learn that he’s married to his ship. Yeah you read that right. It’s was very Futurama and I instantly knew that I would love this book, probably until the day I die.
From there The Fist goes through the crowd until it’s fight time. Here he takes on “Bub Sniktum” which is basically Wolverine. I laughed because creator Jordan Kroeger manages to nail every trope about Wolverine and make him annoying and funny. If I ever get a dog his name will be Bub Sniktum because of this comic. The fight is glorious, but short-lived for one of our opponents… the one the comic isn’t named after. After that The Fist fights Samus from the Metroid video game series.
Sure both fights are homage characters, but you know what? They were perfect. They were funny and what Kroeger brilliantly does is use your knowledge of how powerful these characters are to then say and now look at The Fist… look at how powerful he is compared to them. More importantly it’s entertaining as all hell.
The story is actually so much deeper than it appears to be which is the perfect balance to the humor that the rest of the story brings about. I go back to the Futurama example and not because of the ship, but because it balances heart with humor and that delivers some incredible writing. Kroeger clearly understands the medium and storytelling in general which frankly is a goddamn breath of fresh air because a lot of indie’s I’ve read lately do not understand how to tell a story.
The best way to describe Kroeger’s style is say that it’s a mixture of Paul Pope and Alexis Ziritt. At least it is to me. I loved the style. I love the detail that was used on each panel, on each character from start to finish. The style is dynamic, which is exactly what you want with a story that relies on action and physical humor. I won’t lie, there’s parts that are rough, but you can kind of see the improvement as the story goes on, but overall it has a great look.
For me The Fist is perfect because it knows exactly what it’s doing and delivers. It never deviates from its goal of telling an entertaining story and telling it very well. You can nitpick the art, but everyone has their personal tastes and this fits my tastes. The bottom line for me is that The Fist is one of the best comic books I’ve read all year and I can’t wait to review the second issue and then read more.
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