Gory and gruesome, 1985 Black Hole Repo #1 delivers on its publisher, Heavy Metal, Inc.’s namesake. However, behind the artwork, which seems ripped straight from a Metal album’s cover, it misses the mark on the social and political statements it attempts to make. Often, the criticisms are unceremoniously blunt, lacking any subtlety at all. But I guess in this regard the story encapsulates the essence of its heavy metal inspiration as well.
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I've never really been a fan of marauding barbarians as characters. That whole genre has never really done anything for me. I think it's because it's a genre where a lot of the stories are essentially the same. There's only so much that can be done with the genre, in my opinion. Like, I get it – there's a group of totally ripped and brutal barbarians, and they're also totally fucking badass. Or whatever. I don’t know. There's probably a little more to the genre than this. Usually, when one of these books ends up on the review list, I just scroll on past. So, why am I talking about this here? Two reasons, really. The first is because Atomahawk is – in a way – one of these stories, and the second reason is that I didn’t know how else to start this review.
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Effective April 2017, Diamond Comic Distributors has assumed exclusive worldwide sales and distribution for Heavy Metal Media, LLC in comic shop and book markets for graphic novels, trade paperback, and hardcover book publications. Diamond will continue to distribute Heavy Metal Magazine’s bimonthly issues to comic shop and specialty stores as well.
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Find out why Heavy Metal’s Interceptor made our “Best of 2016” list!
Read MoreYou know how Marvel Studios said they were going to try and stop doing origin stories because the viewer had seen too many of them? I really wish ReincarNATE had got that memo. Or at least figured they could have sped past a lot of the setup and moved onto the actual hook, which is Nate can talk to two of his past lives who now help him fight crime. Most of this comic is a very by the books private detective story. Nate is a former cop turned a private eye. He is resented by most of the force, besides Autumn, a cop who is a little sweet on him since she is literally the only woman in the book. Nate has a smart mouth and is in over his head. He also is the only one trying to take down the big bad guy…El Panda, which is one of the lamest bad guy names in history. We don’t know why Nate left the force for sure but get a quick glimpse it was him being set up because he got too close to the “truth.”
Nate then gets shot which causes not his death, not any brain damage, it just magically makes two guys appear only he can see. One is a cowboy and the other a sniper or assassin, both of them are Nate’s previous lives. That is where the comic gets slightly interesting as the pair bring new voices to this very tired story. But before we can get to deep into that the comic is over.
After the main comic is all done, there’s a three-page back up story. It already has Nate working with his past selves and spoils any tension the main story may have on how that relationship will work. It is also way more concise and gets to the point what the main story took 25 pages to do. It even ends on a better cliffhanger, backup story for life!
The art in the main comic is alright; everything is understandably heavy shadowed. Occasional line work and coloring seem to give people facial hair they didn’t have before or have in the next panel. Also, there're a few panels early on where Nate has completely different faces, my favorite where he appears to be a creepy bad guy from the old EC Comics covers. When the shadows don’t over invade and misshapen people, though, there are some great expressions. A lot is told in looks that the word bubbles feels the need to also express. Hopefully, that gets fixed in the future. Just chose one or the other and be more consistent on the faces.
As a whole, this is a pretty forgettable book. Nothing in the story will stick with you afterward nor will any of the characters. Even the two past lives are the epitome of what you mentally picture when I say cowboy and assassin. Hopefully, further issues try something new this rehash just doesn’t cut it.
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ReincarNATE #1 Writer: Michael Moreci Artist: Keith Burns Publisher: Heavy Metal Price: $3.99 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital
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The Paybacks continues to be a surprisingly thoughtful book underneath all of its gags, driven by Shaw's all-around excellent art. Bloodpouch has always sort of been the de facto main character, and I'm happy to see him rise to take up the mantle in this issue. A series like this deserves nothing short of a goofy, incompetent hero with a silly power, nothing to lose, and a lot to avenge. The sequence in which the faux-Miss Adventure reveals her sexuality is yet another case where this creative team demonstrates its penchant for well-timed humor. Even in a series this absurd, Rahal, Cates, and Shaw demonstrate that timing is everything and there's plenty of humor to be mined from normal moments to which many of us can relate.
Read MoreThe Paybacks now in its second volume moves from Dark Horse to Heavy Metal and continues to be the most fun you'll have with superheroes in the Western hemisphere. I don't read as many superhero books as I used to. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out whether that's because something has changed with me as a reader or the number of good superhero books being published has declined. (For what it's worth, I wager it's quite a bit of both). In any case, there are still some great superhero books out there, just not in the places you'd expect. One-Punch Man is probably the most popular, or at least the one with the most meteoric rise in the last year. My favorite on the manga side of things is actually My Hero Academia. That's for a lot of reasons, including the fact that it's sort of carrying a torch that Naruto used to carry, it's smart without being annoyingly cerebral, character designs are original and interesting, and it takes seriously the relationship heroes have to their society.
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