Steel Harbor’s in for a change.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chris Warner
Art: Patrick Olliffe, Tom Nguyen
What They Say:
Nail-hard tough and drop-dead gorgeous, Barb Wire is the baddest bounty hunter on the mean streets of Steel Harbor, where gangsters can lift bulldozers and leap rusting factories in a single bound. The hunting is stupid good and the bounties are hella big—if Barb lives long enough to collect!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of the launch titles back in the 90’s with the Comics Greatest World lineup, Dark Horse Comics is bringing back another of their original titles with Barb Wire. I had read the original series a bit, but I have to admit that outside of some of the visuals, it didn’t leave much of an impression overall. The movie in a way left more of an impression, and that’s more just for casting than anything else. So with a more modern approach to the book here with Chris Warner back in familiar territory, I was definitely curious to see what they could do with it. And what it looks like should be a decent bit of fun, where it’s not too gritty and not to full of cheesecake.
The series revolves around our title character, who operates out of Steel Harbor as a club owner that’s struggling like most people in this town are. With it being an in the slumps kind of location, there’s a decent sense of decay about it and people that are trying to hold on and coping as they can. While Barb handles her club well enough, delegating some of the more modern aspects of it, she also supplements what she makes there by working as a bail enforcement agent, tracking down those that skip out on bail to make some cash. While the reality of being a bounty hunter like this isn’t anything like the comics or movies, the book looks to mirror some of that fairly well, while upping things in true comics for, The opening gives us a good run of her going after a guy that skipped bail and it’s all physical on her part in taking him down, rather easily overall, rather than a gun fight or some other weapon. The only thing that takes it up a few notches is that she hates being called babe, honey and a slew of other names.
The bulk of the book takes place in the club, after her bounty time that’s being filmed as part of a reality series, and we get a good feel for it and some clues about how the area is in the process of kicking off a revitalization under the new mayor. Through her walkabout in the club, we get to meet a pair of guys from large and opposing factions that keep things peaceful between each other until the other one snaps. So there’s a kind of amusing detente where they prod each other, but neither goes over the line. Barb keeps the peace well enough between them, but the arrival of a man named Wyvern Stormblud turns the club chaotic with some brawling. It’s instructive to see how everyone reacts here, especially the group leaders, since they accede to her wishes rather than rumble and cause trouble. Wyvern’s completely out of place here, but he’s the catalyst for things to start changing – next issue.
In Summary:
Warner takes us back to Steel Harbor easily enough and there’s nothing that really makes it a problem, though the city doesn’t stand out either. It’s fairly boilerplate material in terms of what we get here in design, but it’s detailed and has a solid enough look about it with what Ollifffe and Nguyen bring to the page. There’s not a lot of story here to be sure, though the arc is teased, but what we get is all about the foundations and establishing the city itself. There’s some fun action at the start and plenty of character clues along the way, so you do feel at ease with Barb by the end of it, even a bit sympathetic, and curious to see where it’s going to go. That’ll be the kicker for it, because what we get here is good, but it’s not distinct as it doesn’t provide something that really stands out. But Barb has potential, and if it can find is voice and direction quickly, it could be a very fun book.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 1st, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
