Death or Glory #1
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Bengal
Publisher: Image Comics $3.99

These days it’s a golden age for comics, multiple projects coming out from outside the Big 2, but with that comes a necessity to stand out. One creator who I have found never had trouble standing out is Rick Remender. Between projects like Venom, Uncanny X-Force, Black Science, or Deadly Class it was hard to see how you ever could miss his style. Death or Glory is no different in that regard, but as always is a completely different animal entirely. Less sci-fi, but more in the vein of one of Remender’s earlier work in Last Days of American Crime focusing on desperate people, crime, and action.

Death or Glory focuses on Glory, a young woman trying to steal enough money to pay for a liver transplant for her adoptive father. As sympathetic reasons for being go, that’s a hole-in-one, and the community surrounding her in Yuma, Arizona are fleshed out pretty quickly to build a functioning idea of the world surrounding her. Of course, the people in her orbit: friends, enemies, allies are given space to breathe with their own desires and foibles. As world-building goes, Remender is as always on top of his game.

Bengal does a spectacular job in opening up the first issue. Between pencils and colors, he makes quite a mark in the first issue. The barren feel of Yuma, the action scenes near the end of the issue, and the smaller scenes in-between give Bengal a chance to exercise a great deal of range. All things considered, this is a comic that has a very specific look that only really works here. The modern Western meets Death Race vibe is one that really works quite well here. If you’re a fan of good crime comics that trap inherently decent people in bad decisions, with action, and myriad conflicts: you’re in for a treat here

4 Bulletproof Trucks Out of 5