Review: The Scumbag #9
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Publisher:Â Image Comics
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Â Jonathan Wayshak
Letters:Â Rus Wooton
Colors: Moreno Dinisio
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
“I’m going to give the world my gift of PARTY!!!” – Ernie Ray aka The Scumbag
The Scumbag #9 – Moonflower (Part 4) – Ernie has double- and triple-crossed so many people he doesn’t even remember what side he’s on, so how is he the one getting backstabbed?
Scorpionus and Moonflower enact their plans: one wants to control how we look, the other wants to control how we think—who will win? Nobody!
Positives
Before we take any step further, perhaps you should read the First Issue online so you know exactly what you are getting into with Ernie Ray.
Jonathan Wayshak takes over the artistic reins for Scumbag in this issue. We are back at some very solid renderings and intricate pencils and colors. No shortcuts are taken in each frame as they both accentuate action, color, and real clean comic story telling.
Expect to see a lot of action and a lot of nudity in this issue (circa 1970s free love…so it is pretty graphic).
Subject matter aside, this comic has featured a lot of great artists. Issue #1 (which can be read online if you are over 18), provided where this comic can be from an artistic standpoint along the lines of the 1980s Conan the Barbarian series, however, Wayshak carries the baton well on his turn at the ink.
The scripts of Rick Remender …
I love the Remender allowed the reader to get their guard down a bit as the confrontation at the end yields the biggest setup for continuing the Scumbag ever! Think one Scumbag is too much to handle…what about an entire planet of Ernie Ray’s views and addictions. Whew!
Remender also gives a big “middle finger” to the entire comic industry and arguably film industry in the Multiverse ideas, and the formation of his own “Justice League/Avengers”. The Reprobates are straight out of an older version of Garbage Pail Kids as the nastiness they embody is both satire and sadistic humor all rolled into one. This comic is your dirty little secret!
Negatives
You get what you get with Ernie Ray. If you are picking this issue up, then make sure you get the preceding issues. When you drink from Ernie Ray’s story, it is because you have a taste for it. Toilets, drugs, orgies and somewhere along the line, there is saving the world. However, the man is triple crossing at this point, so bring a road map to navigate what he utters. it’s all lies…or is it? He’s a lone wolf in the midst of a mess and he’s the anti James Bond…Rick Remender has given us an utter mess that we cannot look away from!
Verdict
If you are into something really really different and you like uncomfortable clashes, this is your book. You’ll laugh and wince and roll your eyes. f you want to catch up, be on the lookout for the trade paperback Cocaine Finger. That tells you all you need to know right there! If you enjoy this, you deny eating at McDonald’s and reading the National Enquirer.
