Review: Bomb Queen – Vol. 7 #1

Since launching in 2006 I’ve shared kind of a sordid historywith Bomb Queen. I tend to give thefirst issue of each new series a shot and so here we are again the first issueof the newest series. I enjoy Jimmie Robinson’s over the top violence; he’s oneof those writers that are willing to pull the trigger on the most disturbingidea possible. He’ll blow the head off of a character when you least expect it,or have them pee themselves in front of a crowd; things that I find too ballsyto write about. But he never pulls the trigger when it comes to the art. Surethe characters talk a big game and their very graphic with their dialog butnothing is ever shown. Now I’m not saying it needs to be and there are otherplaces to get that sort of thing if you’re looking for it. What I mean is thatthe dialog and story are so graphic that it seems out of place not to go to thenext step of being an 18 and up series.

The newest volume takes place after the Bomb Queen killsherself and destroys the internet, but I’m generalizing. A team of Hawks hasbeen sent into the site that was once her great (?) city to find a man that’sraped and murdered a woman. Now the Hawks are a part of the ShadowHawkorganization, in the future Shadowhawk can be summoned by anyone “jacked in”the system. Also they don’t speak in complete sentences so it’s like reading adamn text message from someone who’s stuck with 140 characters. After a lot ofplot explanation it’s finally revealed that an underground society that valuesbooks and basically how our society functioned before the internet, wants torelease the Bomb Queen programing into the Singularity.

I’ll just say right now that I know the “text talk” and VH1style pop ups were supposed to be annoying, but it was beyond even that. Istopped reading the bubbles after the first page, I commend any writer that hasa world with enough depth to write such things but it’s boring as a reader. Ingeneral the story was just another BombQueen ditty. I was honestly more interested in the future of Shadowhawkthan anything else, but I know that Bomb Queen will destroy it all. That’s whatshe does, she says she’s going to destroy it all and by the end of the seriesshe has. She’s the bad guy that always wins and that’s pretty much the point,but after six volumes already it’s kind of tired.

I also have to say the art was not as good as I remember itfrom previous series. The first three series had a great look to it and wasvery distinct, but the latest volumes have become really stale. The covers ofcourse are still amazingly detailed and just fun to look at which is more thanI can say for the interior art.

I’ll venture a guess that this is a love it or hate it typeof book for most. I find myself sitting in the middle; it’s not the best or theworst and basically doesn’t try to sway me one way or the other. You’d figurethat after six volumes the series would grow or change, but I find myselfrepeating the same phrase since the second volume, “Yup, that’s Bomb Queenalright.”

Score – 3/5