Pigs #5 – Review

By: Nate Cosby & Ben McCool (writers), Breno Tamura (artist), Kevin Colden & Jordie Bellaire (colors), Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: A bunch of Cuban-born agents are trying to break into a prison to kill someone.

Three Things: 

1. I feel like I missed an issue! – This isn’t necessarily the writers’ fault.  I’m pushing 40, read a lot of comics and have a bajillion things going on in my life.  So I DO lose the plot thread of comics sometimes and it isn’t the writers’ fault.  That being said, I’m kinda lost and I’m sure I’m not the only one.  Here’s what I know about the series [SPOILERS]: The President’s arm gets cut off at some point and last issue these Cuban agents were killing a Congressman and his mistress.  So, I don’t understand why – in this issue – they’re trying to break into a prison to kill an inmate.  What does this have to do with the plot?  And there’s this Nazi inmate who seems important, but I don’t think I’ve seen him before.  When I harp on this kinda thing, there is always someone who pops up to give the answers in the comment thread and I’m not debating whether some people can keep track of the plot, but the writers need to do a better job of recapping the action if they want to sell this as a single issue comic.  I’m sure it’ll read better in collected form, but if you’re selling it to me as a single issue I must review it as a single issue.

2. I want to know about the severed arm, dammit! – This is mostly an issue with pacing of the series.  The first issue had that awesome reveal on the final page where we learned that somehow these Cuban agents had chopped off the arm of the US President.  That’s the mystery I want answers to.  I don’t really care about how some of the agents are more committed to the cause than others or any of their personal dynamics.  Further, I don’t see how this story is leading us toward the President.

Pigs #1 – Review

By: Nate Crosby & Ben McCool (writers), Breno Tamura (artist), Chris Sotomayor (colorist) & Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: A possible Cold War era sleeper cell is activated in the United States.

What’s good: This is a tricky review because the big thing in this issue is what happens on the final page.  I’m not going to spoil it, but even with a warning that “something big happens on the final page”, I guarantee you will still say, “Oh Crap!” when you see it.  You see that final panel and you really want to know what happened to bring the action to that point and how the situation will be resolved.  I’m hooked.

There’s also the fact that this is a straight-up espionage story.  No superpower, no spandex, no women with huge chests….  We need some of this stuff.  It speaks really badly for the fanbase that the only genre of comic books that seems to be economically viable is superheroes.  Now, don’t get me wrong….I love superheroes too, but you need to have some comics around the house to show people when they snicker at your silly, little boy habit.  This is the comic equivalent of a Tom Clancy novel and lots of people read Tom Clancy novels.