The first thing that I noticed about Broken Cortex was that its subject matter seemed familiar almost immediately. Of course, it’s hard to come by completely original stories this far into the game, but R-Comics and the creative team of Rodney Roger and Angel Martinez have decided to take a shot at it. The story is pretty simple. There’s an unknown outbreak that wipes out ninety percent of the world’s population and the Thompson family is just trying to get along long enough to survive. The strangest thing to happen to this terrifying new world is the mysterious arrival of the “Necrobots”. Now if you want to see some originality here it is. These things are flesh-eating zombie-cyborgs. I can’t remember the last time that I came across an enemy that screwed up in a comic book.

The moment that I started the first page I felt like I was reading a clone of The Walking Dead. Literally everything reminded me of that series. But I will mention, however, that it did seem like a quick read, and that’s good. The dialogue was pretty linear and I did get lost a couple of times due to the sizes of quite a few of the dialogue bubbles, but overall I guess it was fine. Some of the arguments seemed forced, though. I know that the world is in this terrible state, but honestly the situation doesn’t seem to be nearly bad enough to warrant all that unnecessary yelling and foul language. It all kind of goes nowhere. I love to let the expletives fly as much as the next person, but it just seemed a little like overkill.

The art delivered by Angel Martinez was fine. I really think that a good colorist could have brought a lot to the table, though. On a positive note, the look overall was pretty solid. There was no confusion created when a panel had a lot of characters in it. Everybody looked the same every time you saw them. One thing that I definitely noticed was that the two characters that were brothers, really looked like brothers. I think that matters. Some of the zombie-cyborgs on the other hand looked like different renditions of The Toxic Avenger.

I’m not exactly sure what R-Comics was going for here, but in closing, I would just like to say that the attempt made was admirable. Personally, I know that it’s extremely difficult to get your stuff out there and read by your peers. So I have to give credit where credit is due for taking the initiative. Nice job guys! Unfortunately when it all comes down to it, I will say that maybe this series just isn’t my cup of tea, but I wish this team the best of luck.

Score 2/5

Writer: Rodney Roger Artist: Angel Martinez Publisher: R-Comics Price: .99 cents (Digital) $2.99 (Print) Release Date: 10/23/13