Scud the Disposable Assassin Vol. 1 Review

 

Rating: 2/5

Synopsis: In a world where people can somehow pay for robotic assassins to eliminate their target at will and subsequently self-destruct, the title bot decides to preserve his victim and freelance at his will.

 

My Thoughts: After listening to Comic Tropes’ rather excellent critique of this series and learning that even the likes of Dan Harmon (creator of Community and Rick and Morty) were involved in this, I was enthused at checking it out. To my very disappointment, this is one of my most underwhelming reads.

Starting with the art, it was a hotter mess than that potato in the microwave which might have been the most shocking criticism I’d imagine having given that it’s part of what drew me in. At the surface, it contained much of the tenets I long for in a humor book including bouncy aesthetics, a charmingly crude layout, and fast-paced comedy. But ironically, these qualities were its weakest points. One reason I attest to this would be the exposition which is all over the place with too much action happening at once. This added to the crude illustrations made me scratch my head on what the deuce is going on. Furthermore, when the action is difficult to deduce, it also hampers immersion into the story and visual jokes. Speaking of jokes, even when the art is more comprehensible, the humor felt bloated. While rapid-fire dialogue and one-liners do tend to elicit laughs out of me or at least a handful of chuckles, these tropes can tire out quickly when they’re the only facets to a character as it is in this comic where there’s a constant stream of line after line of quips and random allusions without any respite for characterization or proper build-up to the plot. The only reason I am leaving a lenient two-star rating is since I found a few odd scenes here and there mildly humorous such as that assassin bot commercial and seeing Scud pretend giving a mock impression of a Christ figure.

Final Thoughts: Had I read this when I was younger when I had lower expectations, chances are I would be laughing along to it the same way I did with the Simpsons Comics and comic strip collections I spent hours binging through as a 12–14-year-old kid. However, I’m not the mostly carefree kid anymore and didn’t receive the same joy several others sought in it. Since I already downloaded the complete collection of the series, I still will trudge through a few more issues lest it improves, but until then, I can’t really recommend it.