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Black Ops With A Black Badge

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by Vince Brusio

The most successful soldier is one that doesn’t look old enough to have a driver’s license. You mistake competence for adolescence, and the next thing you know you’re on the ground with a knee across your neck. That’s the angle for the boys in Matt Kindt’s Black Badge #1 (JUN181214) from BOOM! Studios. In this PREVIEWSworld Exclusive interview, writer Matt Kindt, artist Tyler Jenkins, and BOOM! Studios Senior Editor Eric Harburn elaborate on how an elite fighting force in the Boy Scouts cope with their missions … and morality.

Black Badge #1 (JUN181214) is in comic shops August 8.

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Vince Brusio: So the premise for Black Badge #1 (JUN181214) is that a top-secret, elite branch of boy scouts have been selected by the government to take on covert missions. Since when did child labor become acceptable as collateral damage? Is this The Goonies meets Red Dawn? What’s so special about this group of tykes?

Matt Kindt: The basic concept of Black Badge was a kind of running joke for me. Why are the Boy Scouts called “scouts”? What if the Boy Scouts were actually deployed as real scouts? On real scouting missions? Why are they called “scouts” if they’re not actually doing actual scouting missions? The Goonies meets Red Dawn is pretty accurate.

Tyler Jenkins: I personally love the fact that we have this wild adventure story that sits on top of some pretty morally reprehensible core beliefs. It’s a great vehicle to say some heavy stuff.

Vince Brusio: Introduce us to the lads. What makes them tick? What are their ticks? What is each scout’s specialty?

Matt Kindt: Kenny is the leader and he takes the idea of “always prepared” literally. He carries an impossibly large backpack with anything the team would ever need for any mission. Also, his best friend might be missing or dead. And it might be Kenny’s fault.

Mitz is the archery expert and firecracker of the team. But Mitz has a bit of a secret that he’s hiding. If the team has a “Snake Eyes” he is it.

Cliff is the brains and the muscle. While the other kids have a lot of gadgets and gear...Cliff has a big walking stick that’s really just his ass-beating stick.

Willy is the new recruit. He’s sort of our window into this crazy world of boy scouts as real scouts. He’s got every badge ever offered by the scouts...or so he thought. Then he learns about the Black Badge and he’s a little worried about what he’s going to have to do to earn it.

Vince Brusio: At a time in scout history where Boy Scout leaders are adapting a policy change whereby girls are allowed into the program, that doesn't seem to be an option here for this "elite" branch. They seem to be a closed circle. Isolated. How does this affect them? What does their interpersonal relationships look like to the reader?

Matt Kindt: We’ll definitely be dealing with gender issues and the personal relationships of the kids but those are all slow reveals that are going to run the course of the series. Black Badge starts out kind of fun with some adventure and spying and actual scouting...but behind all of that we do have four characters that are still kids. Dealing with all the issues we all dealt with growing up. Identity, friends, love, and the bigger questions about what to do with your life.

Eric Harburn: One thing the team wanted to avoid with this series was the idea of presenting the team as being a “boys club” — as the series unfolds, readers will hopefully find it to be inclusive and welcoming to any and all fans of espionage fiction, sidestepping some of the usual problematic undertones of the genre.

Vince Brusio: What’s inferred by the title “Black Badge”? Usually, the word “badge” implies honor. But if the badge is “black,” what does that mean? Does it symbolize how these kids are being robbed of their youth because of their responsibilities to the government? Do you show that as an honorable sacrifice? Or is it a dysfunction that may have unintended consequences?

Matt Kindt: It has a lot of meanings — some of them you touched on but I’m going to leave that to readers to decide. As black as the badge is, there is going to be a lot of grey area in this book and a lot of moral judgements that are made by the characters. It’s going to be up to the reader to decide where they fall on those issues.

Tyler Jenkins: I hope the choices made by our characters and the sacrifices they are forced to endure are very divisive to readers. Anytime someone dictates someone else’s responsibilities you run into morally dangerous territory. Can you ever honorably sacrifice another person?

Eric Harburn: And without tipping our hand, the figures behind the Black Badge program — like any good shadow organization — have a few different contingency plans in action. As for how that relates to the title...stay tuned!

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Vince Brusio writes about comics, and writes comics. He is the long-serving Editor of PREVIEWSworld.com, the creator of PUSSYCATS, and encourages everyone to keep the faith...and keep reading comics.

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