By: Jimmie Robinson (story & art) & Paul Little (colors)
The Story: It’s kind of a Bomb Queen v. Shadowhawk crossover story!
Five Things:
1. Not much Bomb Queen in this Bomb Queen comic. – I hate to speak negatively of a BQ title because I really love the series and think it fills a valuable niche in comicdom, but there wasn’t nearly enough of the titular character in this issue. 75% of the issue shows a group of future Shadowhawks talking and investigating a crime in the ruins of BQ’s New Port City. That’s really not what I buy a BQ comic for. I want to see the sexy, scantily clad, vulgar anti-hero as she does things like blow up TV reporters and city managers.
2. Art suffers for lack of Bomb Queen. – This series is always about Jimmie Robinson drawing the hell out of Bomb Queen. He’s really made her a wonderful character over the years and he draws her really well… Heck, she’s the attraction to the title. But, the rest of his art is just “fine”. That isn’t to say that it’s bad art or anything like that, but in this crowded comics marketplace, you need something unique about your comic to reel people in and much as the story suffered for not having enough BQ, the art had the same problem. Jimmie Robinson drawing BQ is what this series is about.
3. Still has some strong bits of humor. – There are still all kinds of biting humor and satire in this issue. Robinson populates a lot of the panels with pop-up style factoids. Most are simply statements of fact to help readers get up to speed on the new status quo, but when discussing how all of the population has these data jacks in their heads, Robinson does sneak in, “It is illegal to be jacked off.” And, he works some visual humor into the story too when BQ does manifest (via a computer upload) it is into a man’s body, so you get the visual gag of a man in BQ attire. Let’s just say he isn’t up to date on his waxing.
4. Promise for this volume. – Even though I’ve been a little hard on this issue, by the final page, things are basically in place for an old-fashioned BQ romp. She’s back and she’s looking for a new body and has a pretty good idea of where to get one. So, I’m 99% sure that next issue won’t feature a ton of Shadowhawk talking and will just get onto our scantily clad antihero blowing stuff up.
5. Great cover! – In this era of lousy comic sales, you need something that’ll make a reader grab a comic off the shelf or cause a retailer to give it a second glance in Previews when they’re putting together their order. Mission accomplished for this cover. You may not buy it based on that cover, but you will notice it.
Conclusion: Not the strongest issue of BQ ever, but that was mostly because it had an overlong introduction to the Shadowhawk universe. And, there may even be added attraction for some fans of Shadowhawk. But, by the end of the issue, things were strongly looking up, as we seem to be lined up for another classic BQ adventure.
Jumping on point?: Definitely! There’s enough info in there to get a newbie acquainted with either Bomb Queen or Shadowhawk. The only caveat might be that it isn’t a very traditional BQ story, so someone wanting to “check this out” might not get what they’re expecting. For those folks, go check out any of the previous BQ minis.
Grade: C (with a bullet)
-Dean Stell
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