Comic book review: Evil Empire #4- Say hello to the bad guys

Writer: Max Bemis
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Publisher: Boom Studios
Released: 27th August 2014


I know this review is a bit late, but I’ve just got around to reading the book, and I have to say something about it, late or not. If you read my review of Evil Empire #3 you’ll know that I absolutely loved the conclusion to that issue. It promised something more than I was expecting, something that is continued in Issue #4 where our punk rock heroine realises that she’s been played for a sucker by a devious politician. This issue introduces a creepy comic book style villain, and has the newly elected President of the USA giving a very crazy acceptance speech, a speech that is probably a bit too crazy:

‘We will be their Nazi’s, their Al Qaeda, their Sith, their Hydra.’

The Evil Empire has revealed itself, with the newly elected President of the United States telling America that it’s sick, and that he is going to cure that sickness whether they like it or not. How is that going to go down with the statist suckers that voted for him? My guess is that they’ll do what Barrack (Hope and Change) Obama’s supporters are doing now. They’ll be wilfully ignorant or try to blame somebody else for their cult leader’s lying ways. That’s how it usually works in cult mind control situations like political puppet worship. The followers cannot accept that they have been lied to, so they go into denial and make excuses for their beloved leader rather than look at the cold hard facts of what he has actually done.

I can envision some reviewers complaining about the nature of the speech made by the new president in this issue, as it’s so completely unlike the bullshit and platitudes nonsense you usually get from the professional liar scum politicians. I agree, it is highly unlikely that any politician, let alone a President would speak in this manner. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying this book though. The story is something that you don’t often get to read about in comic books, so I appreciate it as a refreshing change from the norm.

Evil Empire #4 is a full stop to the first stage of the story arc. Our punk rock protagonist has been played for a fool and the Evil Empire has been established. This issue feels like an end, so it will be interesting to see how it starts to kick into gear again. That’s a problem with this issue, that it feels like a full-stop and as we already know how the story ends (due to the frequent flash-forwards in time) it doesn’t really offer much hope for a happy conclusion.

The entire series so far has been exploring how America slipped into totalitarianism and became a moral vacuum, but now it has been explained there doesn’t appear to be any more story to tell. Is this a mistake by writer Max Bemis, or does he have something else up his sleeve? I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here as I’ve really enjoyed his book so far, and I’ll be picking up the next issue just to see if he can inject some new life into a story that already appears to have been told.

Rating: 7.5/10

Comic book review: Evil Empire #3: The Hagman and Hagman Report of comic books

Writer: Max Bemis
Artist: Ransom Getty
Publisher: Boom Studios
Released: 30th July 2004 

Just when I thought it was getting predictable, with the fake liberal left, and the fake intolerant right lined up as the heroes and villains of the book, something happens at the end of this issue that has thrown my expectations into chaos, thus making this third issue of Evil Empire more than just another formulaic politically correct leftist leading comic book, and something that is trying to get in touch with the pulse of our times.

Corporate enforcers enjoying their time off with drink and drugs

This is a comic book unlike a lot of the others on the market today, in that it refuses to close the curtains, bathe in ignorance and pretend that we are all still living in the mid to late 1990's. This is a book that says something about the world, as it is today. It’s a book that is dealing with the present day anxieties that a lot of aware people are talking about. Evil Empire is the Hagman and Hagman Report of comic books.

I’m not going to spoil anything here, and I’m not going to detail the plot like many of those other boring and formulaic reviews you find on comic book web-sites. I'll briefly sketch some of the plot, but I'm going to spend most of this review talking about the bigger issues that the book is addressing.

This book is about the future of America, and how it has turned into a fascist totalitarian Police state ran by criminal elite’s and policed by drugged up psychopaths in corporate enforcer uniforms.

Yes, it’s the very near future, but like any good dystopic work of fiction, this is really talking about what is happening in America today.

So what is happening in the America of 2014?

America is a country where hard fought for freedoms are diminishing by the hour. A country taken over by private banks and corporations that own and control both mainstream political parties, and where democracy is a rigged game. A country where the media works against the people, lying to them, distracting them and telling them that black is white and up is down. A country where large numbers of people refuse to look at reality, simply because political correctness dictates that they cannot criticise a man of the president’s particular skin pigmentation. This is America as it is today, and yet the vast, vast majority of comic books just refuse to even go there, at all.

Here comes some justice

Evil Empire is unlike the vast majority of comic books that you will find in your comic book store today.

Before I talk about the actual content of the book I have to give credit to artist Jay Shaw for the fantastic cover that adorns Evil Empire #3. It really is exceptional. It is a cover that says everything about the state of America as it is today. A flag dripping down the plug hole, leaving a bloody stain around the rim. That is America, slowly fading away in a pool of blood. Blood from it’s foreign policy of supporting terrorists abroad, and blood from it’s using the fear of terrorism back home to erect a concentration camp around the sleeping distracted masses.

And as America slips away the vast majority of it’s citizens obsess over sports, celebrities, materialism and divide and conquer media ploys like racism, sexism and homophobia. It’s a liberal thing in 2014. Guilt tripping over their own thought processes the President literally laughs in their faces as he deliberately flushes America down the plug hole of history.

The book begins with some drunken corporate enforcers getting what they deserve. It’s a very good start. It then jumps straight into a thrilling narrative about a right wing politician going all Satanic whilst the feminist liberal left (as represented by a pierced and tatooed rock star with a funky haircut) do all they can to stop him. If that was all that was happening here then I’d congratulate it on the cover, applaud it for the corporate enforcers being shown as the control freak psychopaths that they are, and then just leave it as another feminist liberal book that thinks that political correctness and socialism is going to save the day, and stop America from going down the sink.

Not everything is as it seems here

But that is not the case. Something happens near the end of this book, something fantastic that really pushes this book over the edge, making it a country mile better than what you usually get in comic books that are dealing with socio-political issues.

This is not just an aware comic book though.  It’s an exciting, fast paced and unpredictable comic book as well. The pacing is spot on, and there is barely a wasted panel in the entire book. This book is tight. It doesn’t mess around.

Evil Empire really intrigues me now. Last month’s issue did a great job of sending me off in the wrong direction, but after the exhilarating events of issue #3 I’m back on this bandwagon big time.

This one could be very good. It’s a book unlike so many others, in that it appears to at least be attempting to interact with the reality of the world as it is today. How revolutionary eh? A book that hasn’t got its head stuck in the sand and it’s ass in the air. What a revelation. If you haven’t been following then follow. Get the first three issues; read them all in one sitting and you’ll have the same expression that I’m wearing on my face right now. A big old smile, surprised that a comic book of 2014 is actually reading like a comic book that was written in 2014.
Rating: 9/10