Comic review: Black Market #1- What the Hell was that supposed to be?

Writer: Frank J. Barbiere
Artist: Victor Santos
Publisher: Boom Studios
Released: 16th July 2014


This book read like it was missing captions that explained what was happening now, and what was happening then. I’ve read it two times over now and I’m pretty clear on the plot now, but still a bit confused about the order of events and when they happened. That’s a pretty basic mistake for a comic book to make, as a confused reader is not a happy reader.

I don’t really understand why they’ve confused what should be a very simple story. It’s just another take on the Watchmen, and yeah I know that’s the last thing that anybody needs, unless it shines a light on contemporary concerns in a post 2001 setting of course. Does it do that?

No.

Okay, the plot. It’s set in a generic comic book no-man land of 2013 where superheroes fly around saving people from the usual unimportant minor issues that plague people in comic books, like office fires and bank robberies I guess. How about dealing with illegal foreign wars, criminal corporations and banks colluding with the government to screw over the public, poisons in the food supply and all of the jobs being shipped over to China whilst the remaining slave population in the west is socialised under tyranical control of the corrupt state?

Nope, none of that.

The idea of this book is that superhero blood can cure cancer, and all of the other diseases caused by the toxic chemical jungle that the elites have set up for their western slaves (this last part is not mentioned, that was me). So what’s the problem then? Surely the superheroes would be happy to donate their blood, wouldn’t they? And if they don’t want to donate their blood surely there’s a good reason for that, right?

Here’s the reason as explained by a cliché bad brother drug addict criminal type- “They’re not willing to share it.”

Okay, that’s that sorted then. Time to kill some superheroes to get their blood and flog it to pharmeceutical corporations, End of book.

What the Hell? The book features basic art with blank backgrounds that are coloured in the same shade as my bedroom wall, and the main hero protagonist looks like a weasly computer geek who you wouldn’t want anywhere near your kids. There is nobody to cheer for here, nobody to boo, nobody actually to give a rat’s ass about. The book ends with a damp squib that might as well be a page in bright neon lights that reads- NO POINT IN READING ANYMORE OF THIS CRAP.

Oh god, oh god, Oh god. You know I check out a website called comicbookroundup that is a good little site for quickly scanning a few reviews from all of those horrible ass kissing comic book sites that say nice things about absolutely every single awful comic in a tragic attempt to get re-tweets on twitter. It’s going to be difficult for the children writing on those sites to say something nice about this dried up old turd. What can they possibly say to get a mention on twitter? That’s going to be interesting, but as for this book? There’s absolutely nothing of any interest happening here whatsoever.
Rating: 2/10