My Bad #1

My Bad #01

Ahoy Comics 2021

Written by Mark Russell & Bryce Ingman

Illustrated by Peter Krause, Mark Russel & Joe Orsak

Coloured by Kelly Fitzpatrick & Paul Little

Lettered by Rob Steen

A sharp super-hero spoof from a stellar team that includes co-creators of Irredeemable and Second Coming! In Gravel City, the super-villain Emperor King has devised not only a sadistic death trap for his arch-enemy, The Accelerator, but also the means to penetrate the top secrets of his other arch-enemy, The Chandelier! Important new comic book universe begins here, we say sarcastically!

This is a crazy silly book. When they say this is a spoof we’re talking Robot Chicken kind of spoof it is just that ridiculous and sensationally funny. I know these guys had to have had a blast not only coming up with the names and outfits for these characters but just being able to create these over the top personalities. I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that this is a spoof or that I want to see it taken on as a real story. I mean the character is your atypical crime fighter who inherits a family fortune and as a bored playboy takes up a life of crime fighting. The over the top moments aside the idea is tried and true and this is so out there that I kinda wanna see how far this can be taken.

While there are multiple stories happening here they all kind of blend together to create something greater than their parts. This helps with how much I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in establishing their personalities. The pacing is sensational and as it takes us through the pages introducing the characters, the stories, and this world they live in leaves us hysterically wanting oh so much more.

I have to admit I really like how we see this book being structured and how the layers within them begin to emerge, grow and evolve. The layers open up these great avenues to be explored and this adds some wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceptionally well achieved.

The interiors here are absolutely fantastic! The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail we see within the work is fantastic. That we see backgrounds as much as we do is sensational as they really enhance and expand the moments. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show some remarkable eyes for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really shows a great understanding of how colour works.

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Fun, irreverent and all kinds of tongue-in-cheek moments that will make you laugh out loud are strewn throughout the entire book here. Mark has this habit of taking what we know and taking this to the absurd but in doing so he also manages to charm the readers’ socks off and make us want to see more. I think this is so much amazing than they thought it would be and honestly I’m excited at the prospect of seeing more adventures featuring these characters.