Badrock #3 // Review
The big, grey guy heard the explosion. Now he’s being. taken-in by heavily-armed guards. His hands have been shackled. He’s gone to a remote facility to find his mother. Now he’s being taken somewhere mysterious and told that he’ll be getting some of the answers that he’s looking for in Badrock #3. Writer Rob Liefeld and artist Seth Damoose continue and exploration into the past of Liefeld’s long-lived Ben Grimm rip-off character. The jump background makes him a bit more of an individual. However, the script is buried in so many ropes that it doesn't really seem to be anything other than derivative.
Badrock is asking why he's being restrained. Honestly have other people who are restraining him don't really know. They're following orders. And he's perfectly OK with that. Theoretically if he really wanted to break out, he probably could. But then he wouldn't be getting the answers he's looking for and he would probably be on the wrong. Better to hear these people out and see what it is that they have to say. It's entirely possible that their answer is good to meet him in a direction of understanding. What he's going to find his way completely unexpected, though.
Liefeld’s dialogue is exceptionally bad. The overall run of the script feels relatively well paced. However, none of what the author is revealing about the past of the character necessarily feels all that interesting. The whole bunch of different superhero tropes had been to has pasted together in a story that is still kind of entertaining without being too terribly engaging. Do you know why it almost reads like fanfiction written by a guy who created the character in the first place. Because the character he created in the first place was such a derivative of amalgamation of other heroes. So it feels weird.
Damoose a solid handle on the front of the series. Visuals are delivered with a very straightforward and cartoonish sense of action. It all hits the page in a way it feels brisk and enjoyable. There's nothing in the pages that seems overwhelmingly appealing or anything like that. It’s just fun work that moves along the plot without improving the overall package significantly, which is really too bad. It’s not like there isn’t some potential in the character of Badrock. He’s not without his appeal.
On a basic nuts-and-bolts level, there isn’t anything inherently wrong with the character of Badrock. How could theoretically be a very interesting and slightly new exploration into elements of an old archetype of superhero. The basic elements in the story could be bent around a more thematically interesting concept. As it is, the exploration into the past doesn’t actually feel like it’s all that much of a revelation and where Liefeld goes with it from there seems laughably forgettable. And that’s fine...Liefeld does seem to be having fun with it. It seems like Damoose is having fun with it too. There are likely readers who could have a fun time with it too. It’s just not very good.
