Somebody’s First Comic Book: Badrock Annual #1

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

CREDITS:

Writers: Tom & Mary Bierbaum
Penciller: Todd Nauck
Inker: Jeanette Ubando
Colors: Scott Baumann
Color Separations: In Color
Letterer/Associate Editor: Kurt Hathaway
Editorial Assistant: Tom Reiter
Cover Artist: Arthur Adams
Publisher: Image Comics/Extreme Studios

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: None. Looks like this dude is made out of rock. And… um… he’s “Bad.”

IMPRESSIONS: The story begins in medias res (that means in the middle, for those of you who didn’t pay attention in English class) with the titular Badrock throwing down with some guy with the unlikely name “Re-Coil.” Apparently, the two of them have bounced away from a fight between Badrock’s team Youngblood and Re-Coil and his partner… :chuckle: coil. A second group of superheroes, Freak Force, hears about this on the news and rush out to help their hero, Badrock.

Well, sorta. As it turns out when they arrive, they’re really more bounty hunters than superheroes. And while they are fans of Badrock, they’re apparently not above poaching his collar to get the reward. Badrock gets into a pissing contest with the Freak Force tank, Barbaric, and the two of them decide to trade blows and settle their differences in an “abandoned” neighborhood. You can probably guess how that turns out.

This is, to be frank, a remarkably stupid story. The characters act childish and sophomoric, and the fact that one of the other characters recognizes this and points it out doesn’t really help the situation very much. Some of the characters pop up out of nowhere and have little or no development. In several cases, I don’t think their names are even mentioned at any point in the comic book (the blond dude in the Superman cape, for example).

But we have to be fair to the rules of this little experiment, and that means being honest. As mind-bogglingly stupid as these characters are, can I understand what’s happening? Yes. And with perfect clarity. I don’t exactly know who all the players are, but I know the main characters and the situation itself is presented cleanly, without really requiring massive amounts of backstory knowledge to get the drift. And on that basis, this comic scores relatively high.

GRADE: B