Evil Empire #1 Falls Short of the Mark

Published by BOOM! Studios
Written by Max Bemis
Art by Ransom Getty
Colors by Chris Blythe

I went into this book with cautious optimism. On the surface, here comes more “fight the system, down with the political tyrant” subtext the like of which we’ve seen more than a few times from young writers since the ’90s. But digging a little deeper, there is quite a bit to like. Unfortunately, I must say that this book is the embodiment of good … but could be great.

Bemis sets up a very strong protagonist, Reese Greenwood. She’s a Washington D.C. rapper that goes out of her way to poke the bear when it comes to both the left and right sides of the political arena. She inspires a Presidential hopeful, Sam Duggins, who becomes enamored of her, but her mere association with him could damage her reputation. These characters have good chemistry and both feel honest and have depth. The problem is that they get lost in a bunch of jarring transitions and subplots that feel quite literally out of left field. The biggest one is the huge last page reveal that, for me, fell completely flat because the character in question got virtually no face time throughout the story to make that reveal have any impact.

Blythe has a good color palette and changes the moods exceptionally well, but this can only go so far when the actual line art is lacking. Ransom Getty does a strong job with the layouts and backgrounds. But where those succeed, the character acting fails. Though Getty has a stylized look, similar to Tom Raney, his characters all tend to look the same. The problem is compounded when transitions are done so abruptly that you lose track of which characters are which.

In all, Reese and Sam’s chemistry, along with the shocking last page reveal, has me intrigued enough to at least read the next issue. Hopefully the pacing is more crisp, the transitions are smoother and character acting is as strong as the panel composition. — 3.5 out of 5