Review – Astounding Villain House (one-shot)

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Shannon Wheeler
Artist: Shannon Wheeler
Release Date: 30th October 2013

“I’ve got a plan to eat all the cake in the world.” I want that on a t-shirt! The fact that it’s one of the opening lines in the book gives you an idea of what we’re working with here. Villain house is the medium security prison for your medium security villain, with the squid being easily identifiable because of his 6 arms it’s easy to get an idea of the tone from the get go and i’m happy to say it’s not a bad thing.

The toungue-in-cheek approach continues through into the other short stories the one shot, with a view into what it’s like to date a supervillain (it’s definitely interesting to say the least!). A heist plan gone wrong, and what can only be described as a fantastic look at the “american way”.

Art -wise, it’s more along the lines of an indie book or comic strip, but it works with the humour and Shannon Wheeler has done an amazing job of putting his ideas on paper without it seeming like a clichéd “funny book”.

For me, the easiest way for me to judge a book like this is if it genuinely made me laugh, and while some of the jokes seemed cheap i did actually laugh out loud at some points, so i guess it passes that test well enough!

For a slice of Halloween Humor you should probably pick this up, but then if you don’t like nice things and you prefer the caped and cowled, serious and meaningful books, this might not be the one for you.