By: Fabien Vehlmann (writer), Sean Phillips (art), Hubert (colors) & Troy Peteri (letters)
The Story: As World War II turns against the Allies, a crazy plan is hatched to send 7 Psychopaths on a mission to kill Hilter and end the war.
What’s Good: I’ll give Boom! a lot of credit as a studio for growing their line beyond the licensed stuff from Disney. Those licensed characters ARE really good, but you have to assume that at some point Marvel will be publishing that stuff since Marvel belongs to Disney, so Boom! has really been stepping up their game and bringing us more mature comics. 7 Psychopaths was originally a French comic form the year 2007 and is being rereleased here in English
The basic plot is not an unfamiliar one. Stories about missions to kill Hitler and “end the war” have been around for a long time, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that suggesting using crazy people, so this story is part Inglorious Bastards and part Mariel Boat Lift. This first issue sticks 100% to the team building and we get to meet the folks who will run the team and its first few members. They’re weird and insane, so I’m curious to see how they’ll function on a mission.
Probably the best thing about this issue was the Sean Phillips art. If you’ve ever read a single issue of Criminal, you know what I’m talking about. His art is just perfect for this style of book and he nails it.
What’s Not So Good: I kind of wanted this story to move along faster. I know the team-building aspect of a title like this is important, but I am MUCH more interested in seeing these folks on the actual mission than getting to see a US Army officer try to talk a bunch of mal-adjusted nutters into going on a mission. The pace could have been a little faster. I’m not sure what format this was in when published in French, but it could be that it just wasn’t written with release as a 22-page U.S. style comic in mind. It might work better as a collected edition.
I also found the characterization of the U.S. military to be a bit off. Most officers in the U.S. military are not fat, dumb, conventional thinkers who yell a lot. So, I found their depiction in this issue to be slightly bothersome (especially with today being Memorial Day in the U.S.). But, this is a pretty common problem in film and other forms of media, so you just have to roll with it (I guess) and try to enjoy the rest of the story.
Conclusion: An interesting concept that needs to pick up the pace.
Grade: C+
– Dean Stell