Review: Scarlet #1

In the immortal words of Mel Brooks, “Its good to be the king.”“ You want proof? As part of his deal to come over to DC, Brian Michael Bendis had the company buy the rights to his old Image title Scarlet and restart it under the DC banner. Well, sort of”¦ DC is putting their name on it in small print, but they have revived Bendis“ own Jinxworld imprint for creator owned titles. This imprint is expected to run alongside Vertigo and DC“s own titles.

But Bendis isn“t the only winner here. Because the king is bringing back Scarlet among his other titles. If you are familiar with Bendis and Alex Maleev“s formerly independent title, You get to rejoin the actions of the red-head“s revolution. If you are new, like most of you, this is your introduction to how political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, as another heavy-handed ruler once said.

Bendis and Maleev drop new readers into the thick of it with a fire fight between Scarlet“s soldiers retrieving supplies and sniper on the other side of the fallen bridge. Reader is then introduced to Scarlet herself in a fourth wall breaking monologue that spans four pages. Get used to that. It is one of the hallmarks of the series.

For those of you who haven“t gone back and dug up copies of the trades from Image, Scarlet and her boyfriend got in the crosshairs of a corrupt cop who first tried to frame the boyfriend. Unfortunately that failed, so the cop went on to shooting them. He killed the boyfriend but only wounded Scarlet. This turned out to be a bad thing for the business as usual crowd in Portland, because Scarlet exposed the corruption and started a revolution. They have taken over the city, but the suburbs are solidly on the side of the government.

Bendis does a great job of bringing the character of Scarlet to life. In many ways, she was the prototype of his broken woman forced to take on the role of hero, no matter how bad the fit. It is something he would perfect with Jessica Jones, but here we see the imperfect and, in many ways, more interesting version.

Maleev“s art really kept me in this book especially when Scarlet“s soliloquy started to drag a bit. He keeps the focus on Scarlet, but he draws us in with the background details of the destroyed city and the people who believe in Scarlet and her message. You see them light up when she acknowledges them. Maleev shows that they really believe in her and her cause.

Will the government manage to roll up on Scarlet and her forces or will the revolution spread to Salem and Eugene? In many ways, this book feels much more on the pulse of the people now than in the earlier versions. It is a book that you should really be picking up and reading, even if this is your starting point. This review has already been quote heavy, but I“ll end on one last. Scarlet, above all others, knows that happiness is a warm gun.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev
Letterer: Joshua Reed
Designer: Curtis King, Jr.
Editor: Michael McCalister

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!