Image Comics 2017
Created & Written by Jody Leheup & Sebastian Girner
Created & Illustrated by Nil Vendrell
Coloured by Mike Spicer
Lettered by Dave Lanphear
The mighty Shirtless is in the clutches of Fuzzy Wipes(TM) CEO Jaxson Logger, and it's up to rogue FBI agent Suzie Silva to bust him out! Don't miss bear-brawls, golden toilets, and…BETRAYAL
I cannot tell you how much I adore this book! It’s so gosh darn silly from every angle that I can’t help laugh, giggle and chuckle my through it. What Jody, Sebastian and Nil are bringing to us mixes the superhero tropes of the past back, Shirtless’ weakness for example is something that you used to see in superheroes like Wonder Woman who once shackled by a man became powerless. I mean when was the last time you saw that happen? They are managing to both bring back what we love about the past while mocking in a way that isn’t mean or hurtful it just demonstrates where we were and where we are now.
This issue kind of brings us some origins as well. We open with Suzie as a little girl which gives us that insight into how she’s kind of always been geared to be the woman she is. We get a glimpse of Shirtless’ origin as well, not full on because teasing us with bits and pieces is much more fun than laying it all out for us. Oh and yes that wasn’t sarcastic it’s the honest truth it is more fun this way because it allows the mind of the reader to go wild with speculation. The good news is we do learn why he’s The Bear-Fighter and it’s both not what you expect and exactly what you were thinking.
Nil has a very simple amateurish style of work here. It’s works for the subject matter though c’mon people we all wanna see this without pixelation I can’t believe we live in a world afraid to show a monster penis between his legs. I do like the creativity we see here in some instances as the shirt Shirtless is wearing when Suzie finds him, that’s a great humorous nod. The idea of seeing him dump into a movable gold toilet yeah that’s just great bathroom humour brought to life. Overall though it’s exactly what it needs to be for this story and while I’d love a non-pixelated much more detailed look it wouldn’t be the same if I got it.
I will talk about the cover I got for a moment. Bears everywhere, from Gay Bears to Carebears to everything in between this was effin brilliant so I doff my cap to the man responsible. Oh and the Piggie hanging out the thong yeah okay went there and I LOVE IT! Time for you to do a commission cover for me!
While this for me is all kinds of sheer fun there is an actual story running through these pages. It’s well written, the structure of the story allows for the fun we’ve seen as well as the development of what is actually happening which is what we see this issue. So colour me impressed with the all around flexible storytelling that they’ve managed to capture here. It’s bold, fun and daring in all the right ways to make you laugh at the wrong kind of humour!