Interesting. I could describe this comic in one word. Wild’s End is a mini-series coming from BOOM! and I am not exactly sure how an audience will take on this comic. It is certainly entertaining because it has such a strange mixer. What if Mark Twain and War of the Worlds met up in a bar? Well I guess Wild’s End. It has aliens coming down to destroy the town and it has that Southern charm with light humor we can see from Twain. We start in an old time community where its residents get a kick out of small town politics piled with some beer from the local pub and some gossip of the town newbies. The comic starts with a question though and ends in the same way. What just landed in town? Fawkes and his best bud are out drunk for the night. When stumbling home, Fawkes witnesses his friend burn up from one of these machines so now he must convince the town of his findings. When the town wakes up the next day, we get introduced to our main characters. We have Slipaway, the newbie in town that seems to have a dark past of war and is very serious and quiet. Then we meet, who I like to call the instigators, Gilbert and Peter. Although Gilbert is the leader of the town and must know all the animals living there, he takes too much interest in the animals’ personal lives. He is quite nosey, but not exactly in a bad way. I think he has good intentions within the town, so it is hard to get mad at a guy that just wants to spice up his life with knowing every detail of his tiny world.

The comic is a little slow for the beginning of a mini-series. With six issues coming out, I thought we might have hit on more of the War of the Worlds part than the Twain part. But I will give the comic some slack because it gave the audience a question to ponder and gave us some strong characters to work with through the story. It seems that Fawkes, Slipaway, Gilbert, and Peter will become a team for the town. The comic depicts them on the cover this way, so it is exciting to see a new comic team come out of Dan Abnett.

After the introduction of the conflict and the characters, it all comes together when Slipaway wants to find Fawkes in order to learn more of this bright light and robot that he witnesses. The whole comic is just a fun mix up of characters and aliens. I don’t think I have seen an animal town based in 1800s with an impending alien invasion. For that simple premise alone, Wild’s End stays true to its name. It is an interesting comic that will create some mystery and intrigue with all readers. It looks to be another good #1 issue from BOOM! so don’t miss your chance of getting into a cool story wrapped in a completely different setting than anything out there.

Score: 4/5

Writer: Dan Abnett Artist: I.N.J. Culbard Publisher: BOOM! Studios Price: $3.99 Release Date: 9/10/14 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital