Scumbag #12 REVIEW: a nostalgic trip through classic pop culture can’t stop it from being bland.
Writer: Rick Remender, Artist: Roland Boschi, Colours: Moreno Dinisio, Letters: Rus Wooton.
The world has been turned into a remnant of what life was like in the 1950s. Scorpionus believe it’s back to a better time, although not for everyone. Sister Mary is still after Ernie, he hopes that the Prosoma (head of Scorpionus) will help him, but they have all they need, so why bother. Whilst trying to flee from Sister Mary, Ernie finds himself in many predicaments that make him Public Enemy Number 1. So it’s not just the agency he has to outrun, but everyone in the town. Can Ernie escape to then get the world back to the way it was?
After all this time of reading comics, I still believe that no comic is perfect. While I’ve had problems with this series, I’ve had a lot of fun. While reading this issue, one of my favourite quotes came to mind: “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” (from The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan, 2008). I feel the quote rings true in a few ways for this series. From a denotive standpoint, Ernie has gone from hero of the story to who is now seen as a threat to the world. If he had died even a few issues ago, he would have been lauded as the hero he was, and still is despite his moral ambiguity. Now, when we look at the quote about what it connotes, it’s saying that people who do the right things could either end up corrupted, or fighting in a way that makes them the very thing they were against in the first place. . .or that you start by doing good and by the end you could be doing more harm. From this comic's perspective, it started good, but it might have been better as a one or two arc series, if this issue is anything to go by.
All throughout this issue we get multiple pop culture references for us to laugh at. Don Draper from Mad Men getting what he deserves for being a sexist. The Fonz and Richie being caught in a situation. We even get references to Archie and Full Metal Jacket; these may be fun to see as references but they do nothing to further the story, and it doesn’t even make sense. The world has been turned back into the 1950s, so Ernie then happens to come across these characters. The world hasn’t changed, only the time period, or so we are led to believe. So how is it possible for these characters to be here? Once you get past that and think about this issue, it’s basically a filler issue. Nothing happens. This is frustrating, as the last issue felt the same. This is where I feel it’s running a course of becoming a villain, as it was good for the first two arcs, but so far 2 issues into its third arc and nothing much has happened. Disappointing, considering Remender is such a talented writer. I’m hoping I am wrong and that this is all leading somewhere.
As has happened a few times in the series run, we keep the same artist from the last issue, Roland Boschi. Despite my issues with the story from this issue, the art was really good. The characters look spot on, where you know who they are straight away, before they even say their slightly changed names for legal reasons. As I said, it’s fun to get a little kick out of these references, which was helped by how close they resembled the characters.
Overall, I can’t help but be disappointed by a slightly boring issue. I’m hoping better things are to come and this situation with the universe changing to accommodate these characters will be explained and then resolved. I’m still interested, as Ernie is such a unique character, but unfortunately this felt like a weak addition to the series.
Scumbag issue 12 was released by Image cComics on Feb 2nd from your Local Comic Shop as well as comixology
Andrew Carr was blessed to grow up watching the animated series of Batman, X-Men, and his favorite, Spider-Man.This started his dive into the comics world, which resulted in meeting his amazing cosplaying wife Imogen. They live in England with their Sinister Six dogs.