What is this? A fun meta self-aware gritty parody of the super hero genre? Mark Millar doesn't have the monopole of this idea!
My original intention for today was to review the "other" Star Wars movies. But since I couldn't make that on time, here's a very unexpected comic book reviewed.
For other great French comics, check these following reviews:
Comic title: Bad Ass Vol. 3 - Who's The Boss?
Art by Bruno Bessadi
Written by Herik Hanna
Published by Comics Fabric/Delcourt From 2015
Lineup Book 3/4 of the Bad Ass series
Format: Graphic Novel.
What is Bad Ass, you might ask?
Simply said, Bad Ass is a French "Superhero" bande dessinée.*
*Basically our European/Franco-belgium comic books over here
Created by Bruno Bessadi, Herik Hanna and Gaëtan George, it's both a tribute to the genre and a self-aware satire of modern American comic books. A love letter to all the gritty comics from the mid-1980s to the more modern pseudo-realistic superheroes from the 2010s.
And it's way over the top and pretty fun to boot!
This is not done by a bunch of novices, but some well renowned authors that grew up with the genre. Fans that wanted to have some fun of their own.
Bad Ass takes place in a world where superheroes do exist. And bad guys don't play by the rules.
The first trade followed Dead End, a mercenary hitman, part-Deadpool and part-Kick-Ass. Following the introduction of our anti-hero in the first volume and a crazy psychopath named The Voice in the second, this third episode ties both previous episodes together while finally allowing us to glimpse at the actual storyline bringing it all together.
The luckiest son of a b**** in the universe, Dead End, is... well, dead. Gunned down by a bunch of armed ninjas.
Who, why and how did they manage to do that? It's now up to The Boss, the head of the S.W.A.R.D. to find all this out - a sort of parody take on Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. The Boss himself seems to sit in between a vintage Nick Fury and Kurt Russell's character of Snake in John Carpenter's Escape films.
He takes Dead End's sweet ride to help him out, a mecha nicknamed B.O.B. and goes looking for the reason Dead End's luck powers failed him at that moment. Along the way we catch up with some figures from the previous comics such as The Voice and the Hulking figure Master of Pain.
The Boss is the focus of this new episode, allowing us to better understand how this world works, how superheroes and supervillains come into play. The SWARD has very unusual methods, working with villains when necessary.
We also meet a couple of new memorable faces such as this Eddy Looter cartoon otter, an allusion to Roger Rabbit, who works as a private detective. There's all kinds of references and allusions most comic fans will pick up no doubt.
The F.J.A., a twisted take on the Justice League/The Avengers, doesn't seem to stand the SWARD.
Dead End had become the most wanted man on Earth after killing the Dark Knight analog, Black Snake, in the first volume. It seems his action finally caught to him and is run finally ran out...
But at the end of the day, even in death, our main protagonist might surprise us and stay the luckiest man "alive"...
This series just keeps getting better!
Great humor, lots of twists in this new installment!
The comic seems to be following a few threads, going into several seemingly random directions at first before it all ties nicely together at the end.
While the first two trades didn't seem to have much links between them, we finally get to see now there's clearly a bigger picture in sight.
The DC and Marvel references are all pretty great and even clever at times.
Coming at this point so far into the series you will probably want to ask for more... and that's when we all found out this would be a complete self-contained 4-volumes mini-series.
One more volume to go before the end of this comic book, let's hope they've kept one epic finale conclusion for this book!
Overall, Bad Ass is such a great comic!
Really fun. I would seriously ask for more! But alas.. Every story must come to an end at some point...
It's a great fun, hilarious, colorful book. With lots of fun meta-references and allusions that most fans of the genre will pick up no doubt.
Highly Recommended read! Although keep in mind it's for a mature audience, it can get quite graphic at times!
Bruno Bessadi and Gaétan Georges are clearly having a great time, and I cannot wait for the final explosive fourth and last volume - it can't come soon enough!
By now Dynamite Publishing has began translating and publishing this French superhero comic in the US, but over here in French-speaking countries this third volume was just released earlier this year.
I give it:
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