Posts Tagged rob williams

Book Of The Month – December

CLA$$WAR

Written by Rob Williams

Art by Trevor Hairsine and Travel Foreman

Com.x Comics

As a comic book reviewer, I’m offered quite a lot of comics to read and review by companies, creators, and the little guys no one has ever heard of. Most of the time the material I’m sent is good fun stuff, making me love the fact that I’m able to spread the good word about these titles to the undying masses. Then a comic like Cla$$war will come along and completely blow me away.

It’s comics like this that make you kick yourself for not knowing about it sooner, making you curse the heavens that it flew underneath your radar all those years ago. What other comics could have possibly been so important to yourself back in 2002, that this series completely passed you by? Batman? Spider-Man? The same old superheroes who always let the villain get away?

Well get ready for a breath of fresh air, because that’s exactly what Cla$$war delivers, and plenty of it.

The series revolves around a superhero called American, and he’s seen the light thanks to a renegade CIA agent by the name of Issac. Their mission; to open the eyes of the American public and reveal who the true villains are; the corporate CEO’s, the Government, and pretty much anyone else who happens to be white and insanely rich and powerful.

The time period this takes place in is during the George W. Bush reign of terror, and sure enough Dubya is one of the big baddies in the series, as moronic as ever. After American decides to take the president ten thousand feet up in the air to have a little ‘chat’, Issac plays a tape of American informing the vicious deeds of the United States government for the past twenty years. He’s tired of all the lies and the people he’s killed over the years, so it’s up to him and Issac to bring the real bad guys to justice.

Along the way he has to battle his old teammates of the supergroup the Enola Gay, made-up of some of the biggest superhero baddies that only science can create. The clashes are truly epic, making it feel like the issue is shaking in your hands from the aftershocks. I won’t spoil it for you how it ends, but let’s just say there’s an awful lot of gore and violence going down because of the circumstances.

When this six-issue miniseries debuted back in 2002, the original artist was Trevor Hairsine who stayed on for the first three issues, and the last three issues were drawn by Travel Foreman. Even though there are two different artists, it doesn’t distract the reader at all, and continues to flow smoothly with the story. Trevor Hairsine’s style gets compared to Bryan Hitch’s stuff a lot, and with good reason; it’s gorgeous to look at and really captures the characters well. The costumes, the facial expressions, the action, all rendered beautifully by Hairsine’s style. While it might resemble Hitch’s style at times, Hairsine makes it his own without question. He’s an artist I’ll definitely be looking out for in the future. As for Travel Foreman, it might have been difficult to fill the shoes of Hairsine after the third issue, but he shows no signs of frustration or stress in his pages. The art looks just as great, and some of the two-page spreads he throws at us will knock your socks off!

The overall story Rob Williams tells is just a fantastic read, and had me hooked after the first issue. You want to see the bad guys get what’s coming to them, and myself growing up and surviving the Bush reign wants to see Dubya get punished for his crimes especially. The story reminded me a lot like the dark superhero stories you see nowadays (Irredeemable, Black Summer, The Mighty), only the twist being the superhuman is going rogue against the ‘good guys’ like the President of the United States. The good kind of rebellion.

So do yourself a favor this holiday season and pick-up Cla$$war, if not for yourself, then for your comic book friend who thinks they’ve seen it all. Blow his or her mind with the awesomeness that is Cla$$war.

And to think, this is only the first series. Something tells me we’ve ain’t seen nothing yet!

Discuss this pick on the forum!

Book Of The Month – June – LOCAL

Book Of The Month – July – Sub-Mariner: The Depths

Book Of The Month – August – Superman: Secret Identity

Book Of The Month – October – Welcome To Hoxford

Book Of The Month – November – The Nightly News