Insane Comics 2015
Created & Written by Kelly Bender
Created & Illustrated by Bryant Yini
In a future version of America people with “powers” are a reality. There’ve been ones fighting on the side of justice and protecting the innocents, while others use their “gifts” for evil means.
Then there is Sadistic. A diabolical menace whose only motivation is to create the most chaos possible. He has a death-wish with the unfortunate “power” never dying. His power is he absorbs other souls to constantly be reincarnated again and again and again….
So the world is left wondering, how do you stop a psycho who can kill himself anytime he wants to escape?
Well I do understand that lately the whole appeal of characters like the Joker and Harley Quinn being all the rage that it’s inevitable that we’ll see a slew of characters based on them. The real question is how are people going to make their character different and sets them apart from the norm. Kelly does that nicely here so sure Sadistic is a crazy no morals murdering kid of guy he’s also got a super power. An edgy alternative, what kind of crazy dark goth look are called these days anyway, kind of angst ridden bad guy who loves being who he is certainly stands out.
Not as crazy crazy as I thought he’d be though the heroes we see this issue can’t seem to do much about going up against him. Though I have to say I kind of liked the way that we meet Haste and Edon. A kind of super-hero werewolf and a speedster yeah they don’t come across as your atypical heroes and from what Kelly gives us here they are definitely a pair i’d like to see more of. The two are trying to uncover the mystery of what Sadistic is up to and why he’s chosen particular victims so while we do that we don’t see much of why Sadistic is doing anything.
I like the explanation of how Sadistic’s powers work too. Actually i’m pretty impressed with how the whole issue is presented to us as readers. While sure this is a book about one individual we’re seeing about him through various other viewpoints instead of solely directly which only serves to enhance the mystique behind him. Then we see what’s happening at the White House and you begin to wonder if Sadistic is really the bad guy here. Though I have to say I did enjoy seeing Sadistic enter the White House and then seeing two patriotic heroes Starz and Strypes. So now there’s more and more happening here than meets the eye though so it’s something to keep an eye on.
After the main story we’re treated to a Zero issue and I have to say I enjoyed that immensely. The artwork was great and the story itself really gives the reader a look into the mind of the man and how he works.
The artwork in the main story isn’t as polished as it could be. There’s potential here though there are moments where it seems like more time was spent on the page. It’s a matter of becoming more used to working on a deadline I suppose. Still there’s great stuff happening here and we’ll see how it evolves as the series progresses.
Indie books/self-published stuff are putting out some great things these days and it’s nice to see them going out and taking risks with the subject matter.