Review – Bravest Warriors #24 (BOOM! Studios)

Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Writer: Kate Leth
Artist: Ian McGinty
Release Date: 24th September 2014

The more reviews I do for BOOM!’s Bravest Warriors series, the harder I find it to extol the virtues of the series without repeating myself. The art is always top-notch, the humour a delight, and it only rarely fails when attempting to deliver too much mythology, which you have to admire. Issue #24, releasing a month before the second anniversary of the comic, continues the incredibly high standard, meaning that I once again find myself struggling to say anything new about this series.

The art in this issue is amazing, as per usual. I mean do I even need to say it at this point? It manages to capture an animated feeling in the freeze-frame of the comic medium through simple tweaks and exaggerations to the show’s character models. Sometimes these main stories deviate further from the established style to highlight hallucinations and such, and this issue also manages to deliver a fabulously bizarre panel worthy of making your new desktop background.

The story also pleasingly shows off the core aspects of a good Bravest Warriors plot. We have a great villain in the Danny-obsessed RoboChris, who I hope to see again after his defeat in this issue, he is just too bizarrely-motivated to leave on the back-burner for too long. We also get to see a small hint of the will-they-won’t-they relationship between Beth and Chris again, after a strange absence from recent Bravest Warriors canon. Given how well these characters work together, and the apparently doom-laden future that fate has in store for them, it is nice to see the plotline be taken up again through a small hint. The jokes in this issue also land best when they highlight the oddly dangerous nature of this universe and the teenagers we call our heroes. The offhanded way in which screaming yourself to sleep or handing a friend a jacket full of pocketknives is dealt with helps to deliver a crucial part of what makes Bravest Warriors stand out from it’s BOOM! Stablemates such as Adventure Time or Bee and Puppycat. I’m also glad to see that with Catbug being sent on yet more mission-critical assignments he continues to do more accidental harm than any other member of the team, giving further legs to a character that I honestly believed would feel overused by now.

The bonus B-story in #24 pushes this issue from being well-worth your money to being an absolute steal. The unique art-style feels very distinct from the usual style used on main stories, so is worth reading just for the alternate take on the Bravest Warriors universe. This style works best towards the end, when things get just a little bit explodey, giving off a strange sense of power from admittedly bizarre visuals. The B-story also provides the most amazing, Voltron-style combiner I’ve seen all year, and I find that incredibly difficult to say after seeing Deadpool combine with a Dolphin, Lion, Bear and Kangaroo less than a week ago.

So yeah, was that enough new stuff to say about the series? It feels like I’m just repeating myself at the moment, but I’m thrilled that I get to report back to fans of this series that all is well every month.

Rating: 4/5.

PREVIEW ARTWORK.

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