Review – Crush & Lobo #1
Review – Crush & Lobo #1
Written by Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated and coloured by Amancay Nahuelpan & Tamra Bonvillain
Published by DC Comics
Released in June, 2021
SUMMARY
Crush & Lobo #1 is a brand-new spin-off from the Teen Titans Academy series, written by Mariko Tamaki with illustrations and colouring by Amancay Nahuelpan & Tamra Bonvillain.
In a Metal AF blaze of glory, Crush gave the Roy Harper Titans Academy and the Titans themselves the bird, and I don’t mean Robin! As a half-Czarnian badass bitch she seems to be crushing it. However, her life as her human other half’s half-human is hard to hold on to, just like this sentence. With her girlfriend Katie’s birthday party ruined and the pressures of society building up, maybe now it’s time for some Father-Daughter bonding with her intergalactic bounty hunter father, Lobo.
ART
Amidst the monochromatic corpse paint look of Crush is a fittingly loud and proud lesbian flag colour palette which for this year’s month of Pride and the characters involved, is a nice touch! In no way does this feel forced or ham-fisted by Bonvillain as the vibrant neon colours accentuate the contrast of Crush’s gothically noirish presentation, beautifully summing up Kate and Crush’s romance.
Nahuelpan builds an eerily amusing contrast between Crush and the humans around her in that her outlandish and hot mess appearance seems normal compared to an uncanny valley of “perfect” people, like Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun music video. Anyone would feel uneasy around this community of grinning puppets.
WRITING
Personally, I wasn’t familiar with the character Crush and was only a little familiar with Daddy Lobo. Thankfully however, Crush pounds the fourth wall to dust with her charmingly uncharming personality and badass kickassery while also bringing new readers up to speed on her beginnings and life thus far.
It’s common for writers to rush details or sully any momentum they have right out of the gate with a first issue of a new comic series, this is not the case here. Tamaki (with the help of Crush) strikes a perfect balance between storytelling and character building that even manages to surprise the reader in some cases which is very difficult thing to pull off in around 30 comic pages.
OVERALL
In conclusion, Crush & Lobo #1 absolutely crushes it in it’s first issue! Engaging characters with immediate development and chaotic action with bold real-world consequences gives this series all the potential to be a gut bustingly bombastic ride with room for thrashingly relatable emotional baggage as it proceeds.
Give our Review of Crush & Lobo #1 a rating of your own below.
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Let us know your thoughts on Crush & Lobo #1, be sure to check out Timothy and Andy’s reviews of Teen Titans Academy #1 & #3 and I hope you have a pleasant month of Pride!
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