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Kill 'Em All: 5 Comics We Chose About Unapologetic Death and Destruction

Article Image 295dThe beautiful thing about comics is the diversity of content you'll find when you go to the comic shop. There's comics about heroes, comics for kids ... and comics about those who die untimely deaths. Here's five of those titles, unapologetic for their depiction of death and destruction. These comics show how bad things can happen to good people, and no amout of complaining or pressure on the local police department is going to change the outcome.

We have to start with the blonde who every criminal secretly admires. Yes it's her job to take them down, but she's the Ronda Rousey of bounty hunters. If you're going to get beat up, who else would you want knocking out your teeth than Barb Wire, and in the Barb Wire Volume 1: Steel Harbor TP (OCT150041) from Dark Horse Comics, the lovely lass shows she's still hard as nails, hot as Hell, and hands-down the best babe on a bike who rules the meanest streets of America's toughest town: Steel Harbor, USA. And, yeah, it's best to keep the "babe" comment to ourselves. That kind of language can make things go sideways. This lastest trade paperback collects issues #1-4 of Chris Warner's Barb Wire, so if you're looking to get in front of this new series, this is where you check your guns.

Article Image a096Taking out your enemies is relatively simple when you're sticking a gun in their face, but it's not so simple if you have to do the dirty work with a broadsword. For one thing, swords are heavy. Not to mention you have to get up close and personal before you can cleave a collar bone. So a good amount of self-confidence, skill, and, well, bloodthirst is needed if you're job is to wipe out the competition with a long piece of steel in your hand.

No one is better at the job, though, then the bronze-skinned Cimmerian, and in King Conan: Wolves Beyond the Border #1 (OCT150052) from Dark Horse Comics, our black-maned barbarian isn't having as easy a time taking out the garbage like he did in his younger years.

The King is growing weary with age, and in this Robert E. Howard story that's been expanded upon by Timothy Truman, King Conan may find out that the invading Pictish tribes may signal his last days sitting on the throne.

Being in the big chair is actually something FBI Agent Thomas Jennings knows all too well...and a responsibility he would probably abdicate if he was given the opportunity.

Article Image a093In Dynamite Entertainment's Seduction of the Innocent #1 (OCT151315) by writer Ande Parks and artist Esteve Polls, Jennings was like many law enforcement officials when he first started the job. Bright-eyed. Energetic. Ready to make a real difference in the world.

Then reality gave him a nightstick shampoo, and showed him just how brutal life can be when people outside of his little world show that they care nothing for his dreams and aspirations.

They'd be happy to crush everything he loves right in front of him if given a chance.

So when Jennings sees that he's forced to question every belief he holds dear to protect his wife and child from criminals that have been unleashed on his city, he learns real quick that the lines he thought that existed between right and wrong were never there. It was all just an illusion.

Illusions are not an option, though, for people who live in the world of the Crossed. If you know anything about the Crossed, they don't even see you as human: you are merely something for them to mangle and maim until something else catches their eye...which they can mangle and maim.

Article Image 4c71In Crossed Plus 100 #13 (OCT151154), written by Simon Spurrier, Alan Moore's incredibly original Crossed future exploration is taken to a new level...and that level may have some people celebrating.

Yes.

You heard right.

There is a new buzz word on the tip of people's tongues and the buzz word is "hope." In this story that reveals new discoveries for Future Taylor, it appears that the unthinkable may be happening. Humans may actually be on the offensive against the Crossed. They may be able to eradicate the Crossed. There may just be proof that there is a God, and he hasn't turned his back on his creation, he apparently just put people on planet Earth in a corner for time-out for reasons unimaginable. What may be the last upcoming battles may signify an end to the carnage and a return to civilization. 

But this doesn't mean things will be any less bloody, because bloodshed usually accompanies any change in the statue quo when two sides have the single purpose of destroying one another.

Mutual destruction is the happy note we leave you with in talking about the last book that's devoid of fresh daisies and sunshine. The funny thing is that he's the writer who actually gave birth to the Crossed.

Article Image e6b3We're talking about, of course, Garth Ennis, and in yet another title from Avatar Press we see how Garth has not taken his foot off the gas when it comes to giving us stories that make us question whether humanity should just pack it in, and call it a day.

In the War Stories Volume 3 TP (OCT151139) which features artwork by Matt Martin and other various artists, Ennis focuses on historical battles that were among the bloodiest in recorded history. Whether it be aerial combat over the skies of Germany, brutal tank warfare in the Golan Heights circa 1973, or the Soviet war machine that crashed into eastern Germany towards the end of World War II, Ennis spares no details about the horrors of war, and how it is blind when it comes to mutually dealing death and destruction to mortals caught up in the eternal cycle of violence. This volume collects issues #1-9 of the ongoing comic book series.

You can find all of these books in the October edition of the PREVIEWS comic shop catalog!

 

 

 

 

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