Review – D4VE #1 (of 5) (IDW Publishing)

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Ryan Ferrier
Artist: Valentin Ramon
Released: 25th February, 2015

I’ll admit it, this was a bit of a cheat on my part, because this is not the first time that D4VE has been unleashed on this world – that was digitally, back in late 2013, which I was fortunate enough to stumble upon by way of it being pushed on the front page of the Comixology store. But if you’re one who loves that fresh comic smell, it’s now being printed out in handy magazine-type format for you to sniff to your hearts content, which is as good an excuse as any to throw down a BCP opinion of it. Huzzah! (Also, stop sniffing that comic… it’s making me feel unusual.)

Telling the tale of a race of Earth-bound robots who, having wiped out all life in the galaxy, sort of just settled into a routine, and one robot in particular, the titular D4VE, a one-time alien-fighting Defense Bot, whose function now is soul-crushing dysfunction as he desk-jockeys his way towards bored oblivion.

Only, of course, that’s not all that happens, given that the first rule of storytelling is that your story should really be about the most interesting part of your characters’ lives, and whilst it certainly would appear in the first 13 pages that Ferrier and Ramon have gleefully ignored this rule, there is a surprise twist ending, so… y’know… have faith, young reader.

Ferrier’s writing is pretty good fun, providing neat little twists on established vernacular, given the robotic take-over that happened – it’s a premier example of a writer just running with his concept without stopping for breath, and whilst there’re a couple of stumbles here and there, it still ends up working rather well.

The art from Ramon is solid, doing a surprisingly good job of imbuing the comical proceedings with a slapstick physicality that really serves the humour of the book rather well. It’s not necessarily a book of punchlines – instead, the inherent silliness of its central conceit is played out for laughs, and Ramon’s work is central to ensuring this works.

I can also personally vouch for the fact that the series as a 5-issue limited run is well worth picking up – the humour has a Douglas Adams-esque vibe to it, juxtaposing the mundane against slightly silly sci-fi to great effect. If you didn’t get on this the first time around, now’s the time.

Rating: 4/5.

The Writer of this piece was: Ross Sweeney
Ross tweets from @Rostopher24