Indie Comics Review: The Scumbag #10

by Carl Bryan
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Review: The Scumbag #10

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Publisher:  Image Comics

Writer: Rick Remender

Artist: Matias Bergara, Moreno Dinisio

Letters:  Rus Wooton

Colors: Moreno Dinisio

Reviewed by: Carl Bryan

Summary

“Get high on hope…not on dope!” – The Anti-Ernie Ray

The Scumbag #10 – Moonflower (Part 5) – The Reprobates Assemble! Ernie is no longer the only super-powered Scumbag, as he is joined by some old friends with some new powers!

Can Earth’s mightiest degenerates stop Madam Hive? Can they save the world? Most important of all…can they bum a smoke?

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.

Matias Bergara 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.

In fact, the use of pens and colors really are reminiscent of some early Todd McFarlane drawings.  His light and airy renditions of Ernie Ray’s parents (What…this character has parents?) really are a mood changer given the heaviness of battle and philosophy laid on us in this particular issue.

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, Matias Bergara carries the baton well on his turn at the ink.

Positives 2.0

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!  It’s a battle royale where violence and sex is the key instruments of destruction.

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!

As one of my former English professors stated “If you can get past the staple in Playboy, you have some really great writing.”  Well, if you can read The Scumbag, and really read it without getting caught up in the reprobate that Ernie is, you will find that what he is preaching is a bit of rage against the machine and some pretty heavy philosophical content.

Sure, you get the gross stuff, but his writing rivals that of Immanuel Kant – really.

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.

 


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