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Zero #1 Review

By Geoff Hoppe
September 19, 2013 - 22:39

Cast your memory back there (lord…) to sixth or fifth grade or so, where some kids had been allowed to start watching R-rated movies. And not just on tv. The common thing they’d say about violence and obscenity is, "I'm ok with it if it contributes to the story." Saying this made them feel intelligent and mature, and it would continue to do so throughout their adult lives, despite the fact that they started parroting it at the same time they wore braces. I suppose, though, that there's something to be said for that outlook-- it smacks a little of Pope's injunction to read any story "in the manner it was writ." If that’s the case, then I’m not yet sure what spirit Zero #1 is written in.

The Obligatory Warning: action violence, gore, sex and nudity, coarse language.

Zero #1 does get major points for creative layout (the comic’s designed handsomely by Tom Muller). The inside of the front and back covers are part of the story, and there’s not an ad to be seen. This is a clever touch for a title that’s clearly taking from the gritty/realistic playbook. And gritty/realistic it is: Zero follows a comically grotesque fight between two super-soldiers in the Gaza Strip, 2018, and the operative (named Zero) sent to “neutralize”* them. There’s nothing balletic about any of these three. The sort of grounded glossiness that made, say, the Brubaker/Epting Winter Soldier storyline in Captain America look simultaneously pretty and realistic isn’t here. These supers throw bricks, toss sand to the face, and bite off loose bits of each others’ skin.

Even the Marvel Ultimate Captain America storyline that had Steve Rogers bite out a cobra’s venom sacs and spit them in the face of his enemy looked more attractive than this. In a particularly telling moment, the normal human operative following them makes the same leap across building ledges they do, only to awkwardly lose a tooth in the process. All this shows admirable commitment to detail, but I can’t tell the grand guignol from the satire: is the violence supposed to lampoon the proceedings, or approximate the real? The mock-Iron Man chest-piece on the Hamas terrorist suggests goofiness, but the moments where the protagonist caps people in the head suggest commentary.

And, because this is an Image title, nudity and dirty supply closet sex for no good reason. Excuse me—because it contributes to the story.

In whatever spirit this series is intended, Michael Walsh and Jordie Bellaire’s art matches it. Zero has an attractive layout that maintains realism while still doling out comic book thrills (onomatopoeia and speed lines a-plenty that somehow don’t detract from whatever the tone is). That said, the book’s look borrows-cum^-steals from Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye in a fashion more obscene than the aforementioned closet sex. Mature artists steal, I suppose…

Worth the money? At first blush, no. Read it in the store and see if it grabs you.

*the scare quotes are an awkward nod to Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.” It’s impossible to use a verb like “neutralize” and not think of O.

^I can’t tell you what this is an awkward nod towards. This is a family website.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12