R.I.P.D. Volume 1 (2nd Edition) Graphic Novel Review

ALWAYS read the fine print or you may get a hell of a lot more than you were bargaining for.

What They Say:
Welcome to the Rest In Peace Department – the devoted, yet dead, officers of divine law enforcement “patrolling the deadbeat…reporting to one boss.” Yep – THAT boss. Nick Cruz was gunned down in the line of duty at the height of his personal and professional life. Now he’s traded a hundred years of service to the R.I.P.D. in exchange for a shot at solving his own murder. Unfortunately, his search will take him to Hell and back – literally! Don’t miss the post mortem mayhem, soon to be a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, and Kevin Bacon!

The Review: (please note that content portions of review may contain spoilers)
Nick Cruz was an exemplary man- a model student at the police academy who graduated first in his class and he was the youngest officer ever promoted to Detective at his precinct in addition to being a loving husband and father. Pretty much his only fault was that he was a bit on the impetuous side and liked to wade into things before back up arrived- and credit would be shared. And then one day he and his partner, Detective Nettles were examining a house that a tip said was producing a powerful and dangerous new drug known as “Ash” which has the ability to make even the most upright person stray from the path of righteousness when everything went wrong as his charge through the back door was met by a fatal barrage of bullets…and thus Cruz’s story ended.

Or it should have anyway, but instead of finding himself standing at the Pearly Gates Cruz finds himself in what some would think of as Hell as he stands in what appears to be a bureaucratic nightmare waiting for all the people in lines to be processed and move to their next place in the afterlife. As he waits Cruz finds that he is pulled into a private office and he meets with a lawyer claiming to work for the Highest Authority who is offering Cruz a chance to return to the world and discover just who killed him. Given what he has lost, Cruz jumps at the chance to return without bothering to read the contract in full and he is going to discover that he really, really should have taken the time to read the whole thing and the job he just agreed to as well as what he is prohibited from…and he is going to have a long time to think about his mistake as the contract has him enlisted for a century of duty.

Cruz returns to the world to find that he is now a member of the Rest In Peace Department, a law enforcement division that answers to a Single Authority and who are tasked with making sure that those who have received eternal punishment for their actions are sent back to Hell if they manage to escape and make it to Earth. In order to have Cruz acclimate to the force he is teamed with Roy Powell, a sheriff whose commitment is nearly done and who has had more than enough with the business at hand but who is not going to cut any corners with the new guy just because he is almost- and it isn’t going to be easy as Powell is going to have to walk Cruz through some of the harder things about his new job, such as his inability to see his family again as well as some of the nasty things Cruz will now see regularly that try to climb up from the pit on top of the ugliness of those humans who would try to profit off those creatures powers.

But as the pair look for Cruz’s killer they are going to have to do double duty as the balance of power may be shifting as one of the lesser demons has decided he is tired of waiting on Satan to make a move and has decided to be more aggressive…starting with knocking off the current ruler of Hell and gaining its army for himself to launch assault on Heaven. To accomplish this the demon is going to attempt to get his claws on a legendary weapon that was created for the purpose of ending the Prince of Lies existence centuries ago and he is hot on the trail of the rumors to find out where it is hiding and is piling up quite a body count behind him. With blood flowing at a rapid pace and threatening to become a torrential flood of Biblical proportions is Cruz going to find that his former talents are up to the task of solving either his own murder or preventing one that might lead to a new level of chaos between the various worlds…and is it somehow possible that both trails force Cruz to follow them to the very Gates of Hell?

When reading through R.I.P.D. it is pretty easy to see just why the comic managed to gather the attention of movie makers as its fantastic premise allows for a rather imaginative and spectacular story as the concept has a whole lot of possibilities that can be explored enhanced by the title’s eschewing of taking a dour approach to its setup but instead it blends in humor and bravado at the absurdities its cast faces which certainly gives it a large potential audience to target. Of course it is pretty impossible when reading through the material not to pick on some of the story’s influences, particularly the inescapable bits that feel heavily inspired by the original Men in Black film, but just because a story may be a bit derivative doesn’t rob it of entertainment value (especially given that many of the stories in the world can be seen as having borrowed from stories that came before) and R.I.P.D. certainly has some fun to provide readers with its mixing of the supernatural/afterlife with a police beat written with a strong splash of realization that comics can be both meaningful as well as fun to read.

Not everyone is likely to get the same amount of enjoyment from this outing as the art is a bit on the cartoony side of things and half of the story is incredibly easy to see coming from a distance (say orbit for some readers) in addition to the short-time veteran/rookie partner relationship trope that has become so common that it borders on eye rolling when simply introduced but the comic does a pretty good job of avoiding some of the more overused and egregious clichés that one might expect as it goes about its task with an effort that feels more than just workman like but short of masterful. Part of the shortcomings here is the lack of follow up on certain ideas presented and the speed through which the story is told that lessens the impact of some pretty big concepts but given that the series has gone on to be a long running one it is likely that what appears here is more of an introduction that was intentionally short on the part of the creation/production side to judge (or create) interest. Due to this apparent production decision the events move accordingly at a speed that comes across as an attempt that tries to get the readers feeling like they had gotten a whole story in this bizarre new universe in a minimal amount of time even if that pacing left spaces that could have been filled if the title had been a continuing serial from the beginning and known it had more space to relate its tale. Still if one is willing to cut the comic a bit of slack they will discover a world of potential that is presented here which this initial comic run sets up and while this collection doesn’t present the deepest or most original comic on the market its author’s knowledge of how to build a story and have fun- even in a dark way- with its premise makes it an entertaining trip none the less.

In Summary:
With a major motion picture in the works, Dark Horse Comics presents this re-release of their out of print introduction to the world of the Rest In Peace Department (R.I.P.D) and the cast that inhabits this odd existence where a select few individuals are offered the opportunity to return to a form of life in exchange for a century of policing those from escape from Hell and would attempt to wreck havoc on Earth and it inhabitants. While parts of the story presented may seem a bit on the cliché side while other parts feel like they are skimmed over rather quickly the story seems to have been crafted with the intent of making sure that the title is one that wants to tell an entire story in this outing. In order to do help sell the story and appeal to people with the author some absurdities and humor as opposed to approaching things with an overly serious and grim outlook on events which makes for some entertaining- if not overly original in many respects- reading.

Grade: B-

John Rose

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