By Dustin Cabeal

Same as it ever was… same as it ever was. What the fuck are they talking about in that song because it’s not the new WWE comic from BOOM! Studios, though it does apply to it. If you enjoyed that weird one-shot that BOOM! did just to test the waters or have something to sell at Comic Con, then you’ll be happy to see this first issue.

This issue is the continuation of the bad breakup between Seth Rollins and the Shield. I just hope you don’t want to see any actual wrestling happen in the comic. There’s none. There’re panels showing the aftermath of wrestling, but there is no sequential wrestling shown. To his credit, Serg Acuña illustrates some spot-on renderings of the wrestlers in the issue. He’s a close match to Dan Mora’s style, but neither of them have been given the opportunity to illustrate anything more than the aftermath of wrestling.

The story instead focuses on boring you with the “behind the scenes” of the matches. Showing that Rollins is the new golden boy to the boss and how his former teammates hate him and antagonize him off camera constantly. In fact, reading this you’d think that Dean Ambrose was the heel and not Rollins. There’s even a terrible scene in which Triple-H forced BOOM! to include his best friend Shawn Michaels in the comic for a cameo and probably royalties.

I stand by my assessment of the one-shot, this is the part of wrestling no one cares about. I don’t care about what drama is supposedly happening between matches, nor do I like how serious this book is taking itself. It’s the WWE for god’s sake; I’ll take it seriously when they stop calling it “wrestling entertainment.”

From a technical standpoint, the writing is good. I’m not complaining about that aspect, but clearly, the material that Dennis Hopeless is being asked to work with is just boring and safe. It sadly also shows how pointless it is to have a comic trying to keep up with a weekly wrestling show that changes storylines at the drop of a hat. Comics, on the other hand, are three months ahead and thus locked in before we every see them. It’s ill-fitting to have these two things work hand in hand the way they’re attempting to and especially considering how old the storyline is that Hopeless is working with.

I skipped the backup story because I didn’t find it to be that funny the first time. It’s a squandered potential and frankly a page filler. I won’t be back to check out future issues. This concept doesn’t interest me, and if it does for some reason interest others, then it’s likely that they’re blind loyalists to the WWE brand and that the content inside never mattered, to begin with. For me, I love comics; I enjoy wrestling, but I will always need a story to care about inside my comics, not just branding and a pretty cover.

Score: 2/5

WWE #1
Writers: Dennis Hopeless, Ross Thibodeaux
Artists: Serg Acuña, Rob Guillory
Publisher: BOOM! Studio