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Mild Mannered Reviews - Bizarro Comic Books

Bizarro #2

Bizarro #2 (of 6)

Scheduled to arrive in stores: July 1, 2015

Cover date: September 2015

"Bizarro America"

Writer: Heath Corson
Penciller: Gustavo Duarte & Bill Sienkiewicz
Inker: Pete Pantazis
Cover: Kyle Baker

Reviewed by: T.A. Ewart (aka liheibao)

Click to enlarge



Bizarro tackles a used car salesman, Regis Tuttle, who's been possessed into believing he's King Tut... or something. Bizarro is able to stop Tut by hypnotizing him into believing that he's a chicken. With that Jimmy and Bizarro are off to a Lexmart before ending up in Gotham City. They meet the usual suspects, then it's off to Central City, Starling City, Chicago, and various other destinations. Then the duo end up in a ghost town, where they meet Chastity Hex, a bounty hunter. They soon realize that the ghost town, literally is a Ghost Town, but we'll have to wait until next issue to find out how that impacts the trio.

3Story - 3: There should be an ease when it comes to reading this sort of fare, but to be quite frank, Bizarro is a chore to be involved with, up to this point. So much is to be taken for style and comic offering, that it is increasingly difficult to know what should be taken literally, for instance, the title of this issue, the resolution to the Tuttle adventure, or if any of this is actually occurring at all. The idea that it would take this long for Jimmy and Bizarro to get to Canada, goes against the humor of the book, as 1) Bizarro can fly and 2) their road trip is taking them away from their destination, and not closer to it. This can be dismissed with the notion that none of it is to be taken literally, but even the best surreal fiction has some basis in solid elements, such as what is actually happening, so the reader understands what is real, what isn't, and what is questionable. Bizarro is a string of shots, much like in an old photo album, that tells a story which cannot be pieced together without omniscient prior knowledge.

Bizarro has been a disappointment thus far and the biggest reason, is that it just isn't funny. So much is rendered for laughs, from Tuttle laying an actual egg (?) or Bizarro being rejected on a dating service. However, much of it doesn't invite a smirk, let alone a smile or guffaw. There's a lot of effort being put into the title to be humorous, but if anyone actually finds it funny, then perhaps they can expound on what I'm missing out on, because up to this point, I can name science texts with more wit.

3Art - 3: The page layouts are prosaic, until they need to be rendered as snapshots.

4Cover Art - 4: Batzarro doesn't appear!


Mild Mannered Reviews

2015

Note: Except for digital first releases, the month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2015

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