The Comic You Need To Read This Week: "Extermination #1"

Sure, I could go with “Before Watchmen”, which is action-packed, but really all set up, or “AvX #5″, which has an ending you won’t see coming, but I’m going with this as the comic you should read this week.

Why? Because, while it definitely has flaws, mostly in the dialogue, it’s got an unimpeachable concept executed nearly perfectly: namely, Batman and Doctor Doom wandering a wasteland, fighting aliens, and relentlessly snarking each other.

Nox and the Red Reaper were on opposing sides, but now that aliens have invaded and humanity’s dead, all they’ve got, much to their chagrin, is each other. For an apocalyptic book, it’s actually fairly light-hearted as it switches between Silver Age silliness and after the end. The writer, Simon Spurrier, cut his teeth on “2000 A.D.” and it shows in his sometimes dark sense of humor and his characterizations. And Jeffrey Edwards’ art nicely switches between disgusting aliens and superheroics.

The dialogue, or rather how it’s lettered, might put you off at first, though. Spurrier is trying to communicate how people actually talk, and the result can be difficult to get used to, at first, especially as it makes the dialogue a bit uneven. Sometimes, you’re not sure how the characters are supposed to be speaking.

On the other hand, it’s so funny you’ll stop caring a couple of pages in. And there are hints that these characters are going to be a lot more complex than just archetypes sprinkled throughout the issue.

In short, it’s a great start to what will hopefully be a long-running series. Check it out.

image courtesy BOOM!