Review: The Scumbag #13
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Publisher:Â Image Comics
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Roland Boschi , Moreno Dinisio
Letters:Â Rus Wooton
Colors: Moreno Dinisio
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
People who had forgotten that democracy only works when we can come together and agree on some basic ideals
–Â Narrator
The Scumbag #13 – Golden Brown Eye (Part 3) – IT’S ALL-OUT WAR—and Agent Scumbag is over it. Let the world burn! He’s going to sit this one out with a cold beer and watch some TV. Does anyone know what channel Sanford and Son is on? All this and a moral compass appears…. Is that Fonzie???
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.
Roland Boschi continues the artistic reins for Scumbag in this next to the last 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 the action, color, and real clean comic storytelling. We even get a great Fonzie in the frames depicted above!
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. I really appreciated their bringing in so many different artists, but Issue #1 will remain the very best in artistic, as well as “in your face” renderings!
Positives 2.0
The scripts of Rick Remender …
Remender has taken this character full circle as well as this book. Issue #14 examines our humanity. No matter if you are a Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal, Male or Female or any classification you may wish to subscribe to, we are all part of the human race.
Remender and company brought some tears to the eyes with his narrator soliloquy as well as watching one of the Twin Towers fall. What started as an all out gross chauvinistic anti hero has become a full circle commentary on the state of things as arguably most people see it.
Do yourself a favor and if nothing else, read and re-read this series and pay very close attention to this particular issue. It is thought provoking to say the least!
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
This comic is almost to the end of its run. Arguably it’s an homage to the 1970’s with all the rawness of a Mad magazine story. Alfred E Neuman has nothing on Ernie Ray.  By this time you have waited until you can purchase all of the Collected Editions. That’s okay…Billy Ray is a guilty pleasure in terms of art as well as shock value. Remender has created quite the look back and arguably the look forward in this character!
