Comic review: Rebels #4- Liberty, Career, Money, Mud and Corpses

Script: Brian Wood
Art: Andrea Mutti
Colours: Jordie Bellaire
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 8th July 2015


Rebels #4 starts with a gunfight, a battle with redcoats walking in line, getting shot by the ‘Rebels’ hiding behind barricades. It’s a lesson about following orders. Follow them, and you will get pointlessly shot. Think for yourself, improvise, and you will survive. The lesson holds true today. Follow orders and you might as well be dead. Think for yourself and you will be truly alive.

Andrea Mutti’s art is ferociously, terrifyingly real. Shrapnel and dirt fly through the air, you wouldn’t want to be there, it looks dangerous, and you’d want to keep your head down less something takes your face off. War is no fun. I might die. I want to keep my head down, but soldiers are approaching. I must stand up. I must shoot back. This is terrifying. I’m going to die.

The other noticeable thing about the book is that the great hero of the American war of Independence, George Washington, is portrayed as a bit of an elitist snob. I can buy that. He was a high-ranking soldier, and armies are always based around tribalism, self-interest and elitism.

The theme of disobeying orders follows through to the end of this issue, with the main protagonist determined to do what is best to win the war, and to sacrifice what is best for himself personally in order to do so. That’s what a hero is supposed to do, to act selflessly for the benefit of others, not for personal advancement or glory.

There’s an abundance of fake heroes in this world today, and not too many genuine ones. I’ve never met a genuine hero, but I don’t get out too much.

Rebels #4 is a book about lining up, following orders, mud, blood and how to win a war. The art, and the colour palette in particular, conjures up a feeling of terror, gunpowder, blood, death, grass, spittle, sweat, dirt, fear, the thunder of a rifle, and the squelch of a bullet through soft human flesh.

It’s not pleasant, but war isn’t pleasant. War is stupid, pointless, painful horrific death. It’s not cool. It’s not high kicks and muscles. It’s silence, boredom, then fight or flight adrenaline and the horrifying realisation that you are about to die in a muddy field, or be horribly mutilated, and finished off with a bayonet to the chest as you writhe in pain and beg for mercy on the cold, wet, muddy ground.

That’s what I took from Rebels #4. It’s a tough book, a relentless book, a book that is as serious as war. There is nobody laughing or joking around here.

The story is about shooting people who want to shoot you first. Some shoot for liberty, others for career advancement, for others it’s just about the money. The end result is the same, people ripped apart by bullets and shrapnel. It’s not a lot of fun, but war isn’t supposed to be fun.

What you are getting here is truth about war, unpleasant as it is, truth can be empty, find heroism where you can, find a meaning, but the ground still ends up being littered with corpses.

Rating: 8/10 (Harsh war realism)

Comic Review: Rebels #3- Careful, don’t upset the Feminists

Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colours: Jordie Bellaire
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 10th June 2015


Writing a book set in the late 1700’s with men at war, and women at home, is tricky today, as a generation of comic book readers and writers have been indoctrinated by Rockefeller funded third-wave feminism, and don’t even know what a man or woman is any more.

Gender lines and roles have been blurred so much recently that there is no longer any difference between men and women in mainstream comic books. I know why this was done.

Women no longer get to stay at home, to bring up the children. Women have to work now. Try buying a house on one wage. That is no longer possible, unless you have a (very rare) extremely well paid job. The traditional role of women (child rearing) has now gone to the state, and the state is also prepared to take the role of the man, topping up poverty wages with money and resources that a man is supposed to provide. That is why men are forced out of the home (family courts) and marriage is in decline whilst single parent households have never been higher.

The state is Mummy and Daddy now, and that is why we are slaves, owned like cattle by the globalist corporate/banking Mafia gangs that control the world.

I want to make this point very clear. Feminism used to be about empowering women, but not anymore. Today, feminism is about disempowering men, women, children and families as a whole, and empowering the state.

What does this have to do with Rebels #3? Quite a lot actually, as writer Brian Wood is writing for readers who don’t know what it is to be a man, or to be a woman. That statement will anger people, and it should, because it is true. A lot of readers will read a book about the 1700’s, see that the men are doing all the fighting, and that the women are staying at home, and it will confuse them.

Where are all the kick-ass women that they are used to seeing in their Batman and Avengers books? Where are all the kick-ass girls they see in their ‘Kick-Ass’ movies?

Sorry kids, but history doesn’t do political correctness, it does reality. Men fight in wars because men are more expendable to the tribe than women. If men die, so what? But if women die, then the next generation dies as well. That’s a simple fact, and that is why men are genetically programmed to protect and fight for women, and to die in wars to protect those women. That’s not sexist, it’s a matter of tribal survival.

Men have sperm, women eggs. Lots of sperm, not so much eggs. It takes a long time to bring up a child, men can die and the tribe will survive, but when the women die, it’s game over.

Brian Wood has to be careful, because accusations of sexism are so easy to come by now, and writing a book based on reality is always going to be difficult in these Orwelian days of ridiculous political correctness. The plot of Rebels #3 is balancing on a very precarious PC tightrope. It has a young girl acting in a cowardly way, and that’s not going to be very popular today, and the adult female lead is staying at home, not joining the war with her husband, as she inevitably would do in any modern, politically correct comic book.

I can sense the third wavers lurking with their accusations, but Wood makes his main female character tough and resilient and has his male lead protagonist say a few lines that makes him sound like a progressive male drip of today.

‘I was one of the new generation who knew revolution couldn’t be won without the women.’ 

Plus, the narrative concludes with a good reason why this woman won’t be coming along, and it’s a reason that is real, and cleverly deflects the inevitable accusations that always come when you portray women as anything other than heroic warriors today.

Will that be enough to stop the accusations of sexism? Probably not, but at least he tried, and look at that front cover, a strong independent young woman with a gun, a means of defending herself, she is empowered, not sexualised and that must be good enough for the PC Police, right?

That was the main thing I took from the book this month, the careful way that Wood was navigating his way through unpopular (real) gender roles in the 1700’s and how they are a bit different to the messed up globalist controlled world that we live in today. I could say a lot more about the book, but that was the main topic of interest for me this month.

Gender roles in 2015 are so messed up, and it’s the left’s fault that this has happened. They have been used as the useful idiots that they (sometimes) are, and even the best of comic books are liberal left leaning these days. Brian Wood doesn’t want to upset his readers, he knows who they are, and he’s done a pretty good job here of telling a 1700’s story with some reality, and at the same time not upsetting his PC readers of today.


Rating: 7/10 (A character building issue, slow, no action or excitement, but necessary)

Comic review: Rebels #2- In the Forrest with Mr. Wood

Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colourist: Jordie Bellaire
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 13th May 2015


The most note-worthy moment in Rebels #2 occurs after the story has finished, and writer Brian Wood engages with his readers in an essay about American flag waving.

I found that to be illuminating, because what it really is, is an attempt by Wood to convince his liberally minded readers that, don’t worry lads/lasses, I’m still one of you, I’m still a left leaning good guy.

That’s okay, I understand it, especially given his history where he has written books that have savaged the right wing types, putting all of the blame for the world’s ills (and imagined future ills) onto the racist, homophobic, intolerant right wingers.

The problem in 2015 for long-time liberal minded writers is that the paradigm of left versus right, or good versus evil is not quite as secure as it once appeared to be. Brian Wood then is like a lot of long-term leftists, negotiating within himself and trying to work out just what went wrong, why his ideological foundations are now looking a bit on the crumbly side.

I’ll leave that for him to figure out, and talk about Rebels #2 for a little bit now.

The book will probably read better in tpb, but that doesn’t mean that the single issues are not worth getting, because they are. It’s just that in this age of instant box-set access the month long wait can seem a bit prolonged, especially when a book is taking it’s time and telling a well structured fully rounded story.

This issue is about one guy, older than he looks, and I like that touch because it feels genuine, and how he is a new husband, and a revolutionary soldier, and how he manages to handle that balancing act. The story is told through his POV, and that has its pluses and minuses. The pluses being that it means you build up more emotional connectivity with the story because the bloke is talking directly to you, the minus' being that you know he’s never going to be taken out by a random red coat bullet because then who would be telling the story?

You lose some tension with this story-telling technique, but you gain bucket loads of empathy as his nearest and dearest will inevitably pay a huge price for what he is engaged in. I can live with that, and I like the slow pace of the book, despite what I said earlier in the review, it works well, because life isn’t all fast, all action, there’s lots of slow bits in it as well.

The key to the story is making it seem real, and the art is a big plus here. There’s a grit and darkness to certain panels, then bright white to signify the freshness of a day in the countryside. The people look like real people, there is spittle in their mouths, there’s no big muscles here, and I really enjoyed the dramatic splashes of colour during the action scenes as well. 

I have some good news for left leaning comic book fans, and let’s face it, that’s probably about 90% of the comic book reading audience of today. Brian Wood is no right wing gun nut, and you don’t have to feel bad about reading his book. He’s hanging, doggedly onto the left, but I do feel that his grip is loosening, and in that sense he’s no different to any other long time hope and change boyhood Marxist type. He’s got a good book here in Rebels #2, and I’ll continue to read along, not just to see where the story goes, but to follow the journey of Mr Wood as well.


Rating: 8/10

Comic review: Rebels #1- A New World Order Survival Guide

Writer: Brian Woods
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colours: Jordie Bellaire
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 8th April 2015

‘In a rush of great public resistance to an oppressive and excessive government, a home-grown militia movement is formed in rural America. THIS IS NOT 2015, BUT 1775.’

And so begins Brian Wood’s already fascinating tale of small town rebellion against tyrannical government, with a hint that things are not so different TODAY than they were back in 1775. Hinting that the tyranny has returned, and it’s time that small town folk started up their militia once again to reclaim their freedom from centralised, unaccountable government.

I had high, high hope for this book. I was happy to forget Wood’s recent work on mainstream comic books that’s been so dull that I can’t even remember what titles he was working on, and I was even happy to forget all memories of his probably Communist/Collectivist analogy ‘The Massive’ where a ship has been sailing around a post-apocalyptic world for what seems like forever without getting to the bloody point of what it’s all supposed to be about.

Yes, I’m a patient man, and when I saw that Brian Wood was writing a book about the American war of independence against King psycho and his British order followers I immediately had visions of strong masculine father figures, men acting like men in comics for a change, strong, independent FREE FROM GOVERNMENT SLAVERY types and a good, valuable history lesson about bloody well standing up for your rights and kicking government in the arse when it gets too big for it’s britches.

Guess what?

I got MORE than I was hoping for in Rebels #1. It’s a fantastic book, subtle, free of story-line maudlin coincidences and happy outcomes from the off, it’s rough, realistic, dirty and real.

I’m English/Welsh and the slave masters of my time don’t want me to know anything about my history. That’s why my school history classes were all about Nazi Germany, and nothing to do with the immense, proud history of my own people.

I grew up with no sense of identity, which is exactly what government wants. It makes you easier to control, easier to enlist in their armies, easier to control, easier to kill. America is different, or at least it used to be. Americans still have a grasp on their history. They know who they are, even though the present government is starting to wipe that history away, exactly like they did in the UK in order to create a bunch of ignorant statist voter slaves to feed the corporate borg system, or New World Order.

DON’T LET THAT HAPPEN AMERICA.

Buy this book. Learn about your very recent history, learn about government tyranny, and learn how to stand up to it, and defeat it.

Books like Rebels #1 are depressingly rare in this era of the New World Order. It’s a book about resistance, a book about looking after yourself, a book about defending your family, a book about being a real man. Buy it. Buy it now. It’s not just another comic book, it’s a New World Order survival guide.


Rating: 10/10 (Brian Woods is back on form)

Review: Star Wars #19- Feminist liberal wet fart

Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Carlos D’Anda
Publisher: Dark Horse comics
Released: 9th July 2014


This issue is a bit of a wet fart. Let me explain why. Issue #18 of Star Wars concluded a long arc where the female leaders of the rebel alliance had fallen for an obvious Imperial trap, thus jeopardising every single life in the rebel alliance, including all of the famous names that are the main reason why anybody will be reading this book in the first place.

The funny thing about that book was seeing how feminist liberal writer Brian Wood dug himself out of the hole of his own creation. How could he make the female leaders look strong, even though they were responsible for the big mess that the rebels had found themselves in? If this was anything resembling reality the incompetent two-some of Mon Mothma and Princess Leia would have been forced to resign their positions of power for gross incompetence. That’s not going to happen in this book for two reasons. Firstly, Brian Wood is working with characters with story-arcs that mustn’t be damaged or changed because they have to correspond with the roles they played in the three very popular movies.

Secondly, they are female, and as anybody who has been paying attention to 2014 feminist liberal programming in comic books is already aware of, there must be no criticisms of female leaders in contemporary comics, and any suggestion of incompetence on their behalf is a no-go area. It’s not quite the no go area that Islam or anything to do with the Middle East is, but it’s on par with portraying a homosexual character in any kind of bad light. You just don’t do it if you want to work in comics. I loved issue #18 because Brian Wood had to perform story-telling somersaults to get himself out of the politically correct mess that he had created. And you know what? He largely succeeded. Sure it made no sense, and the story has now continued like nothing has happened, but he didn’t upset the liberal Mafia (and he is a part of that Mafia as well) and all is right in the wilfully blind world of feminist liberal comic books in 2014.

Star Wars #19 has a great front cover, and the interior art is a lot better than it usually is in this book, but the story has now officially fallen into wet fart territory. Beginning something completely new, Wood has decided to tell a not particularly interesting tale of the rescue of an agent, who will probably turn out to be somebody’s sister, or daughter. Again as is usual fare in feminist liberal books, the woman is portrayed as an all action man, leaping from danger, wise quipping and acting like men used to do before it was politically incorrect for them to do so. But she’s trapped, and she needs rescuing, although this is not her fault obviously, and she’s tough and independent, but she’s trapped and here we go again with Brian Wood getting himself in a mess, trying to portray females as strong, but getting it all wrong again. Another shovel Mr Wood?

The rest of the book is Han Solo and Luke Skywalker having their balls slowly removed as they meekly and unquestioningly follow the orders of their female superiors. Han Solo is just a love sick teenager in this book, and he in no way shape or form resembles the man that appeared in the original Star Wars movies. That man was a 1970’s man, and that man simply does not exist anymore. He’s been replaced by a liberal wet fart, and that’s what this book is, a liberal wet fart.

The character with the most personality in this book is a droid. A bad guy droid who is tracking our action heroine and saying funny little things like, ‘Humans are so stupid,’ to himself whilst doing so. I agree with him by the way. The humans in this book are stupid, very stupid, and once again Princess Leia has flown some of the most important characters in the Star Wars universe into a very likely trap. All organised and approved by Mon Mothma, the most tactically unaware leader since Hitler thought it would be a good idea to invade Russia in the winter. With leaders like this it’s amazing that the rebels actually won the war against the Empire.

The book ends with an emasculated Han Solo blindly following orders in the background as his beloved Millennium Falcon gets shot to bits, and incompetent Hillary Clinton clone Princess Leia thinks only of herself whilst enjoying a tepid hug with her now even drippier than ever brother Luke.

What a pile of shite. That’s it for me on this one. Who exactly is this book written for? I was reading because I’m a fan of the old characters, but they’ve been given such a lame liberal makeover that they are no longer recognisable as the characters I fell in love with in those old movies. Luke is a gay best friend, Han is a lovesick order following teenager, and Leia is bossing everyone around whilst making bad decision after bad decision with no consequences whatsoever. With decision making skills like that she’s the perfect embodiment of the western political elite’s and their actions since 2001. Making mistake after mistake, with nobody ever taking any blame for the consequences of their actions. And yes, I’m talking about you Tony Blair, you lying piece of satanic crap.

The only thing to look forward to in this book is the rescue mission of a girl who is so identical in every single way to Princess Leia that Wood is even forced to address it in this story. Is she a sister, half sister, cousin, auntie, whatever? She’s probably the gay lover of Mon Mothma, or something equally as daft, as you know that Brian Wood has just been dying to write a gay character into this story to show off his politically correct credentials to all of the brain washed liberal drips out there. You know what, I don’t care. That’s it for me on this book. The art has never been better, but the story has never been worse, and those bloody characters? Give me a break, what a total and utter feminist liberal wet fart.
Rating: 3/10 (for the art)