Prepare your butthorns
Creative Staff:
Story & Letters: Ryan Ferrier
Art & Colors: Valentine Ramon
What They Say:
Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon are back with D4VEOCRACY, the third arc of the acclaimed DD4VE series. In the wake of a robo-political assassination, D4VE begins a presidential campaign. A hip new app startup has other plans for the robot society, however, and creates the perfect political rival.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
For the uninitiated, D4VE is a series taking place years after a robot apocalypse destroys all of mankind, leaving nothing but robots who’ve evolved to the point of essentially taking on human personalities in a very modern human world. Its titular character, D4VE, is an oddball to say the least—his crass demeanor only being the tip of his character iceberg as he struggles through raising an equally crass newly adopted teenage son, divorce, an unfulfilling dead-end job, as well as the occasional bouts of depression. It’s that kind of series, which is to say it’s the perfect blend of bizarre and mundane that deserves a look.
Now entering its third arc, it’s interesting to note just where each cast member has ended up so far—particularly D4VE’s son and ex-wife. It’s been four years since the end of the last story arc, and D4VE’s son 5COTTY now works at a tech company known as Dud3r!. Not only does he absolutely despise his job there, it’s only worsened by the fact that his boss is just as much of a tech douche as you’d expect him to be. Meanwhile, D4VE’s ex 54LLY is recently fired from 34RTH POW3R, her superiors convinced that her alternate means of renewable energy is not as efficient as initially thought. While both characters served more as annoyances to further bring D4VE down in the first two arcs, they now serve as anchors to more mundane relatable problems that D4VE himself has moved on from.
Checking in with D4VE, he’s remained just as much of a trainwreck as you’d expect him to be. Having previously saved his world from invading aliens as well as time-travelled to an era when humans still ruled the world, he’s begun to ask the bigger questions—mainly one’s place in life and whether there’s anything that happens after death. In anyone else’s hands, they’d come off as plainly obnoxious and overly whiny, but author Ferrier does an excellent job of spicing up such a downer subject with his standard D4VE fair. His writing style and sensibilities remain on silly swears and dude-like lingo that’s become a staple for D4VE by this point and continues to give the series a unique, proudly stupid voice.
What I like about this first issue starting off the third arc most, however, is the one thing I wish the previous two arcs did as well—establish its character trajectories. While the first two D4VE arcs were more about him reacting to outside stimuli, this third arc does an excellent (albeit not so subtle) job of making sure we as the reader have a grasp of what D4VE wants out of his life and what he’s willing to do to achieve that. Meanwhile, we’re also introduced to villain-in-the-making GL3NN, head of the tech company 5COTTY works at and all-around unpleasant boss. Following the very JFK-parody-heavy death of ruler and ex-vacuum Roombo, GL3NN uses the opportunity to create a literal puppet to run for the following election. Literally filling the husk’s mind with the entirety of the internet, GL3NN’s creation known as S4M is a meme-spouting machine. It’s utterly ridiculous, but is a fun starting point for what hopefully is a solid third arc.
In Summary:
True to form, D4VEOCRACY 1 is silly in how comically true-to-life it can be, but that’s what makes it so good. Ferrier and Ramon’s mix of unique writing and art continue to breathe life into the robot world, as we’re greeted with familiar themes from earlier arcs that better prime us for what’s to come.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: IDW Publishing
Release Date: January 25th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
