Death Or Glory #1 - Image Comics

DEATH OR GLORY No. 1, May 2018

Announced in February 2018 at the “Image Expo” in Portland, this “new, creator-owned” comic book series is arguably as engrossing a read as its opening scene, set within the confines of a seedy Yuma-based Burger Boss diner, is expletive-laden and gratuitously violent. For whilst Rick Remender’s script undoubtedly doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to graphic sexual innuendo and bodily mutilation, courtesy of a white-haired mass-murderer with a liquid nitrogen gun and penchant for “one hundred and twenty-three cheeseburgers”, its scintillating story-telling pace does arguably make this over-sized thirty-nine page periodical impossible to put down.

For starters, the Los Angeles-based writer has clearly put a lot of thought into the background and motivation of this publication’s leading lady, Glory, and genuinely raises an emotive conundrum in his audience as the “kind, honest character who was raised free, with integrity”, suddenly attempts an armed robbery in a desperate effort to get “the money needed to pay for her father’s life-saving operation.” This potentially lethal situation, made all the more pulse-pounding by the realisation that the “non-violent” young woman has previously been made physically sick simply just holding a pistol, is mesmerizingly packed full of nervous tension, and genuinely seems to cause the reader’s heart to tick that little bit quicker when the crooked cops she’s raiding suddenly recognise her true identity; “Got you now you piece of -- Glory? You stupid girl.”

Equally as enthralling though, is the former animator’s marvellously sinister cold-blooded assassin, who seems to think little of dispatching “two employees and one customer” at a fast food eatery simply because they balked at his significant-sized order when the restaurant was “closin' in like three minutes” time, or losing his entire right arm when Glory unintentionally ruptures his cryogenic fluid container during a tense, frantic scuffle for a briefcase full of drug’s money. Indeed, this killer’s ominous presence throughout the shadows of this story bodes especially well for a title which Remender has already “outlined” twelve issues for, with the hit man’s future plans for revenge upon the pacifist “regular girl” undoubtedly foremost in his mind…

Debatably this book’s biggest selling point however, is Bengal’s unbelievably dynamic and somewhat Manga-looking animated artwork. Featuring a lengthy off-road pursuit involving a battered police patrol vehicle and plenty of gun-play, it is quite clear that the illustrator “loves drawing cars”, and demonstrates just why this magazine’s author has publically stated that “anything he draws is gorgeous. His style is very appealing. His women are human, cute and realistic. They’re not cheesecake. If you look at the design of Glory, she’s a real person. She’s not a caricature. Her proportions and her face are beautiful but human, she’s very real.”

The regular cover art of "DEATH OR GLORY" No. 1 by Bengal