Many people died to bring us this comic review.
Okay, no one died, but one brave Doctor did have to go several hours without power over the span of 3-4 days. For the first time in awhile, I turned off the laptop and I went to the library to read a book. A book printed on real paper.
And then I used their free wi-fi to surf the Internet.
So, I’ve been asked to review the comic Gun Baby for this steampunk-themed issue of ComixTalk. I was all, “but I can’t do it! My power’s out and I can’t see the webcomic without power.” And the editor who signs my checks was all like, “hey, how the hell are you communicating through the internet if you don’t have power?” And I cried, because I’d have to watch Casey Affleck struggle with whether or not to turn Morgan Freeman over to Boston’s Finest in that movie*.
Oh shit, it’s Gun Baby, not Gone Baby Gone. Ah, okay, lemme start this review over.
Gun Baby happens to be the baby of Matt and Gabe White. It’s gone through a few revisions and restarts, but this latest incarnation has reached about 50 pages and has the beginnings of a coherent plot. It starts out with two pages of exposition on a self-proclaimed prophet named Nathanial Boothe (with an “e”). Also contained in those two pages are cryptic words about people called “gears” that turn out to be the spark for a war.
Oh yeah, just a few pages after the exposition, we have a fighting scene where several jets from the nation of Keel-Sonja launch off an aircraft carrier towards the nation of Rampart (we watched, as they were so gallantly streaming). A pilot named Kat gets shot down by one important character manning an AA gun, and then it cuts off to a scene where some kids are skipping school to buy guns, one of whom is the child of an Army officer who is somehow involved with creating these aforementioned “gears.”
There ain’t really much to review here, with only fifty pages of canon to currently look through, but what we do have to look at seems to echo the grandiosity of Alpha-Shade. With old-timey attack planes and aircraft carriers, (hinted) subhuman creatures that live among the humans, high-flying military action and gunplay, the action is pretty cool. One real awesome scene that stands out is this whole gunfight in the rain, though it’s never quite explained why some random people just felt like shooting at a downed pilot. Probably similar to the "bandits randomly appearing to attack the hero" trope I found from my last review. There’s also something about a “Kessel-rider”. Though the Kessel [insert Star Wars reference here] might be more flexible than a car, one wonders if the animal can withstand the power of a .50 caliber round to the face.
If there’s one gripe I have with this strip, it’s that the expressions on the characters’ faces just seem kinda robotic at times. The faces are often drawn really small and sometimes have that “Buckley stare” effect when they shouldn’t. Also, the first panel in this strip makes the characters appear to be running away from footage on a green-screen.
Nonetheless, if you can enjoy some hot, juicy military action with a plot that actually moves somewhere, then go ahead and give Gun Baby a try. With only 50 strips finished (as of this review), it shouldn't be too hard to catch up.
*If you haven’t seen Gone Baby Gone yet but want to, then don’t read this sentence.
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