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There Can Be Only One: BOOM! Studios (2/15/17)

Dustin Cabeal

By Dustin Cabeal

It’s been a while since I had the time to do a There Can Be Only One, that and for the past month, there hasn’t been much that I wanted to suffer through in order to complete one of these. Since I haven’t done BOOM! Studios yet I waited for a week of their popular titles and pulled the trigger. What happens next will amaze you… just kidding, but here are reviews for all of their releases this week including in alphabetical order: Adventure Time Comics #8, Kong of Skull Island vol. 1 and issue #8, Lumberjanes #35, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12, The Deep #2, The Killer vol. 5 and WWE #2.

In case you’ve forgotten how this works, I will start with one review and then rank them in order of how desirable they are to purchase, the goal being that if you’re only going to buy on BOOM! Studios comic this week, we’ll figure out which one it will be when the dust has settled. Let’s begin!

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12

I had to start this review somewhere. Usually, I read them pretty alphabetically, but for the reviews, I’m going to spice it up. I’m not a fan of Power Rangers. There’s a ton of potential for the franchise, but it’s constantly cheesed up from the people that own the licenses. I found the first couple of issues of this series unbearable to read and stopped.

That said, MMPR #12 is pretty damn good. I hate that it’s a licensed book because you could do this story without characters and zoid designs and it would be amazing. I say that, because I have zero interest in the characters, the setting, the history and yet I enjoyed this issue.

Tommy and Billy have been summoned to another dimension where Tommy stays evil, and they blow up the fucking world. This alternate timeline was by far more interesting than anything else Power Rangers related. What works particularly well for the franchise in comic book form is that it can show destruction and zoids far more often. This is its saving grace because the characters are still pretty unbearable. Higgins is clearly trying to mimic the show, and he should just abandon that and make it more mature. The audience reading this book is in their twenties to thirties so don’t pretend it’s for little kids anymore and make them talk like the adults they look like in the story. Otherwise, I have to admit this was a really good issue and considering I haven’t read the series since issue 2, that’s saying something.

CURRENT RANKING

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12

The Deep #2

I meant to read the first issue of this series, but I never got around to it. I don’t feel as if I missed much considering they’ve already started a new journey in this issue. The family has been “dubbed” a menace by a news reporter… the only one the world has apparently. They’re investigating a monster sighting that occurs every 55 years.

The story is clever, well researched and has great artwork by James Brouwer. The characters talk the way wrestlers wrestle, by that I mean they’re all just trying to get their shit in. Everyone has to have a catchy line when they talk which makes for conversations that come across as promos.

The rest of Deep #2 was great. I loved, loved, the artwork and the character designs. I’ll admit that the minute they got on a submarine I was bored instantly, but they made up for that quickly. I just couldn’t stand reading the dialogue. I suffered through it for this review, but if I was reading it just because, I would have stopped after the opening and just looked at the pictures… which did a great job of telling the story on its own.

  • CURRENT RANKING
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12
  • The Deep #2

 Adventure Time Comics #8

You may be surprised to know that I’ve never watched Adventure Time. There is just something about it that doesn’t speak to me and while I consume a lot of animation in my life (more than I let on via the podcast, the website or in conversation with friends) this is just not one of them. I expected to be either horribly lost while reading this or just plain hate it. I think if it wasn’t written by Mariko Tamaki that would have been the case, but her and Meg Omac did an amazing job on this issue.

The story takes place on the flipside or whatever the fuck it’s called, where all the genders are switched. LSP wants to figure out what type of music Marshall plays, and so they go on a band tour. There’s a lot of music fandom references that I’m sure people will enjoy. The message at the end is a bit cheesy, but it didn’t tank the issue. I highly doubt I’ll check out more of this series, but I’m glad that I at least gave it a chance and enjoyed this issue.

CURRENT RANKING

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12
  • Adventure Time Comics #8
  • The Deep #2

WWE #2

I get that a bunch of hopeless wrestling fans are eating this shit up because it’s maintaining kayfabe and comic fans are like, “Hey I love wrestling too!” I get that, but that doesn’t make this book any good. WWE #2 is seriously the most boring comic book I’ve read in years.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why people are interested in reading the between the shows “fakeness” of old wrestling storylines. The only “bright side” to this issue is we get to Rollins’ injury in this issue. You can see the buildup that Hopeless is trying for, but it just doesn’t work… because the injury was real… and the story is fake. Handling the behind the scenes of an expired storyline is just incredibly dull because we already know where it’s going and the in-between stuff is the worst part of the story.

The backup story was either a copy of the Ultimate Warrior’s last speech or a very close homage to it. It didn’t make me pop at all. If they just did an Ultimate Warrior story in a Mad Max setting that would be awesome, but they won’t. The only way to do WWE comics in a way that doesn’t suck is to do what DC did with Hanna-Barbara and make it crazy and different… and for adults. Let’s be honest; no kid is plopping down four bucks for this comic.

CURRENT RANKING

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12
  • Adventure Time Comics #8
  • The Deep #2
  • WWE #2

Lumberjanes #35

Once again I find myself saying “I don’t read this title, but…”. That’s the point of this type of review; I look at everything a publisher has to offer in a given week and usually it’s a bunch of stuff I don’t read, but have knowledge of from seeing it around. I’ve read the first arc of Lumberjanes, and that was about it. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t find it particularly interesting.

That’s what I thought of this issue was well. The characters are getting ready to roller derby against some Sasquatches that have taken over some Yeti’s treehouse. If you read my review for BOOM!’s SLAM! #1 then you know that I liked roller derby, but hate it in comics. Why? Because everyone and that continues here, everyone feels the need to explain the rules of roller derby. At least it's condensed in this issue because of the pages available, but I swear the next roller derby comic I see better just go for gold and not explain the shit. Does everyone know the rules of Football? Basketball? Hockey? Fuck no, but they don’t explain it every damn time. Do people know how the scoring in MMA works? No, but that doesn’t stop them from slapping it into comics. My point is, just show roller derby, don’t explain it because it becomes a huge info dump.

Otherwise, the art was really good and had a nice style to it. The colors were vibrant and elevated the artwork. I just don’t personally care for the characters, they all sound a bit too much like each other and rely on their “gimmick” a bit too much. I know others enjoy it and that’s cool. I’m glad it gets supported, but at the end of the day, I feel like it’s writing down to kids rather than challenging them to read higher.

CURRENT RANKING

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12
  • Adventure Time Comics #8
  • The Deep #2
  • Lumberjanes #35
  • WWE #2

Kong of Skull Island #8

Now unlike the majority of BOOM!’s titles this week Kong of Skull Island released its first trade as well I read that before reading this issue which was for the best. Had I not, I would hove been completely lost. This story isn’t being “written for trade,” but rather written as a complete graphic novel. The first four chapters I read gave me little in the way of insight when it came to this issue which was a shame. I know that not every story can be crafted in a way that you can dive in and not be lost, but a great writer can do just that. In fact, a novelist can do it all the time because they understand that very few people are going to read their novel in one sitting and that no one should read like that because you will stop caring about what you’re reading.

I point this out because I barely understood the landscape of the issue. Two Kong were fighting… no idea why. One gave birth or something. The people have turned their back on the Kongs… there’s a different leader. This amount of crap didn’t happen in the entire first four issues and yet four issues later it was like reading a different comic.

The art was also not as good. The perspectives were iffy. The Kongs look wonky at times, and the baby Kong looked liked something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Not that I was in love with the art in the first four chapters, but it was better in comparison. Which also makes it strange that this is being written like a complete story aka OGN, but the artist is changing from arc to arc. Having read as much of this book as I did and not having an affinity for books about monkey’s, giant or otherwise, I will likely not be back for more of Kong of Skull Island.

CURRENT RANKING

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12
  • Adventure Time Comics #8
  • The Deep #2
  • Lumberjanes #35
  • Kong of Skull Island #8
  • WWE #2

Now BOOM! did have two trades this week as I listed above, but I figured it put them at an unfair advantage when compared to a single issue. What I decided to do then was stop the regular ranking here and announce the winner and scores, but afterward, I will add in reviews, ranking and scoring for the two trades.

 FINAL SCORING

  • WINNER: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – Score: 4/5
  • Adventure Time Comics #8 – Score: 3/5
  • The Deep #2 – Score: 3/5
  • Lumberjanes #35 – Score: 2/5
  • Kong of Skull Island #8 – Score: 2/5
  • WWE #2 – Score: 1/5

And now for the trades!

Kong of Skull Island vol. 1

I read a lot of this series this week… I had no intention of ever reading it, but the point of this style of review is to force myself to read everything a publisher has and see what I’m missing. That said, I’m not missing this book. The first chapter/issue was great. I’ll fully admit that. It hooks you fast as it sets up this society that raises and fights Kongs (aka giant fucking gorillas) for sport, but also in a way for their religion. There are two fractions of society, and they just don’t get along. Eventually, their volcano erupts, and they all get kicked off the island. They end up on Skull Island, and shit doesn’t go well.

The art at times is breathtaking. At other times I wished that they would have kept the story off of the two-page spread of Kong’s fighting and allow it just to be a beautiful battle on the page. It never was. There was always talking heads at the top or bottom. The first volume isn’t bad, but by the end, I was pretty bored with it. It’s transparent with its chapters. You know how each chapter is going to go by the start of the issue and the journey to get to that point wasn’t that entertaining. Having read the 8th issue, I have no desire to see what I missed. Sure, as I said, I was confused by what I had missed, but not in a way that made me desire the answer, more of a, oh well type of deal.

CURRENT RANKING

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #12
  • Adventure Time Comics #8
  • The Deep #2
  • Kong of Skull Island vol. 1 – Score: 3/5
  • Lumberjanes #35
  • Kong of Skull Island #8
  • WWE #2

The Killer vol. 5

My goodness, it’s been a while since I read The Killer. The Killer is an Archaia hold over that I’m frankly surprised to see it still being released. It’s still great. To illustrate my point of a good writer clues you in, I haven’t read this series since volume 3, but the writer subtly catches you up throughout the course of the story. I was lost, but the story found me and that was great. You can read this volume without reading the other four before it because the story can stand on its own in that way, but also because you’ll be updated along the way.

The Killer in case you don’t know is about a hit man. He tried to retire once, but now he kills because it's easier that way. I love that he’s not trying to retire anymore. He has his side family, he’s extremely rich, to the point that people can’t even pay him enough to make him notice and in this volume he’s become the James Bond of a third world country. Things, of course, get complicated because that’s the beauty of this story, the writer puts our main character in the corner and then finds a way out for him.

The art continues to be gorgeous. I wish I saw more coloring as there is on The Killer because it makes the art look so damn good. It also gives it an animated feel, but in a mature sense. It’s not trying to be commercial, but rather just visually beautiful. I have never wanted to swim in the ocean more than I did after seeing how it looked in this book. The Killer vol. 5 is the reason I separated the trades because after reading the first two chapters I was already impressed way beyond anything else I had read and by the time I was done reading it, I knew it just wasn’t fair to anything else it was going up against this week. To put it another way, this is the winner if I include trades.

FINAL, FINAL SCORING

  • WINNER: The Killer vol. 5 – Score: 5/5
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – Score: 4/5
  • Adventure Time Comics #8 – Score: 3/5
  • The Deep #2 – Score: 3/5
  • Kong of Skull Island vol. 1 – Score: 3/5
  • Lumberjanes #35 – Score: 2/5
  • Kong of Skull Island #8 – Score: 2/5
  • WWE #2 – Score: 1/5

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave your ranking and scores, I won’t argue with you, but I’ll read the comment for sure. If you have a publisher you’d like me to tackle in the future, let me know. I’m all for it.