VERSUS #1, from Nukem Comics on Kickstarter, follows two superpowered brothers and mortal enemies who take a break from their eternal battle for a meal. Sadly, their meal gets interrupted more than once.
The Details
- Written by: Aurelio Mazzara, Junichi Yamamoto, William O’Donnell
- Art by: Aurelio Mazzara
- Colors by: Aurelio Mazzara
- Letters by: Salvatore Di Marco
- Cover art by: Aurelio Mazzara
- Comic Rating: Mature
- Cover price: $5.00
- Release date: January 2022 (estimated)
Is It Good?
VERSUS #1 is hyper-violent, gory, imaginative, and really weird. Set in an indeterminate time and place, Aurelio Mazzara’s tale about superpowered brothers looks amazing and shows you things you’ve probably never thought you’d ever see, but keeping track of the story may be a challenge as long as you don’t try to make sense of it.
Mazzara’s story centers on two unnamed brothers who are attached at the hips (literally) and their everlasting fight. During a particularly nasty brawl, they take a break to grab a meal at a diner when unsavory characters barge in to commit murder-kill chaos.
At a high level, the story eventually makes sense by forcing eternally-fighting brothers to work together to face a common foe. But it’s the details where readers may find a greater challenge.
What’s great about this issue? First and foremost, Mazzara’s art is bold, imaginative, energetic, and all-around amazing. Truly, you’re going to see things in this comic you’ve never seen before (e.g. a mouth-expelled turd that turns into an ice dagger). According to Mazzara’s description, he draws whatever comes out of his mind at the moment, so it’s a blessing to see such unbridled creativity.
What’s not so great about this issue? Maybe sketching a rough plot would help because this issue tips over the line separating imaginative and nonsensical more than once. Wild and weird characters appear and create havoc for no reason, so you’re just along for a chaotic ride. Also, the characters either speak in the form of future slang, or the translation to English is painfully bad. Either way, the dialog frequently sounds like gibberish.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with two costumed characters engaged in an ugly brawl. Through the narration, we learn the two are brothers destined to fight forever, and yet, neither wins, because the two are literally two halves of a single whole, joined at the hip.
When the brothers agree to pause their fight for food, they enter a local diner for a meal. As they eat, a group of eco-terrorists enters the diner with the intention of shooting up the place to stop meat eaters. Before the BioNazis can do their worst, a pair of hyper-American rednecks enter the bar and combine to form the Ku Klux Klaw.
Then, the story starts to get really weird.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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VERSUS #1 is an imaginative, surreal, gory story about superpowered enemies coming together to stop a common foe. The art is amazing, and the ideas are imaginative, but the plot frequently devolves into chaos, and the language translation is (possibly intentionally) terrible.
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