I have a weird relationship with Christos Gage’s work. To tell you the truth the first thing that I read was his Avatar mini, Absolution. I thought it was about as “whatever” as it gets. But somehow I was drawn to read Absolution: Rubicon and I really loved it. The whole time I read both series I was thinking how that Happy Kitty character seemed rather corny and out of place. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t pick up her Avatar Special, Absolution: Happy Kitty #1. I wonder what I thought about that… On a seedy dock at night, a group of chuckleheads are partaking in a wee bit of drug smuggling. All the while they go on and on about a legendary female killer. As they start to psyche themselves out, they become face to face with one Happy Kitty.

As our teen vigilante makes short work of the opposition we are taken back to Happy’s childhood. As she sits evolved with a light gun game some yakuza thugs are murdering her drug riddled parents for stealing. The boss, Mr. Tanaka tells the goons to take Happy, with hopes to sell her when she becomes older. When she proves to be too agile for the men, all while still engrossed in her video game, the boss comes up with another plan.

They train her to be a ruthless killer.  Now the boss leaves her with one of his call girls while he prepares her training. His only request is that she remains alive and amused.

In no time Happy’s natural talent is in full force. The only catch is she kills everything, even the Boss’ own men. To correct this he implements a reward system with a Bangle Tiger named Torao that Happy can spend her time with.  Can Tanaka keep Happy Kitty in check? Or is she just too dangerous?

Absolution: Happy Kitty #1 is such a bad-ass book. Sure that action was sweet and looked great thanks to Paul Duffield’s art. But what did it for me was the way Christos Gage handled Mr. Tanaka's dialogue. This man could be one of the coolest bad guys ever. He gives orders in such a nonchalant way and even while Happy was obliterating his men a few feet from him during her training process he just stayed cool and calm. What a BOSS!

Sure this review isn’t as timely as it could be damn this book is badass. If you have an interest for Happy Kitty and her shenanigans then you already have this book. If you were on the fence like I was, let me just say go get this book, you’ll be happy that you did and you’ll pray to the Comic Book Gods that there is more Happy Kitty to come.

Score: 5/5

Writer: Christos Gage Artist: Paul Duffield Publisher: Avatar Press Price: $3.99 Release Date: 12/4/13