Review: Barb Wire Vol. 2 #1
Barb Wire, the club owner/ bounty huntress returns after a decade of absence and her troubles have hardly let up, but not to worry, she isn’t ready to let up either.
She is a salty rip-roaring woman, and she does business the old-fashioned way, with a readied first and a bottle of whiskey waiting on her desk.
Creator(and writer) Chris Warner published first Volume of Barb Wire in 1998. The comic was then made into a movie starring Pamela Anderson which has since been banished to the vaults of movie history.
This new volume starts fresh, with Barb’s clothing choice being a little more appropriate for bounty hunting, although the see-through shirt she wears for managing the club makes is a little much. If Chris Warner is not careful, he risks making the same mistakes he made a decade ago, making Barb’s sex appeal over shadow her character.
Despite skating close to the edge with Barb’s sex appeal, Warner does an excellent job with his characters, from a frustrated and word weary Barb to her irritatingly enthusiastic producer, who, to get a pretty good idea of the kind of guy he is, uses the word “hashtag” in sentences. Not to mention Wyvern Stormblüd, a drunken Nordic whose appearance baffles readers and Barb alike. It is safe to say that in the issues to come, there is a promise not only of action, but of comedy as well.
The penciler for this series is Patrick Olliffe whose talent for capturing body language and movement brings the comic to a new level. When Warner writes sarcasm, Olliffe draws it. Readers can feel her exasperation, and her ever-present ‘face-palm’ moments.What Olliffe can do with his pencil is very special indeed.
Both pencil-er Patrick Olliffe and colorist Tom Nguyen are becoming veterans of the industry and have teamed up for multiple projects already.
In a June 9th interview, writer Chris Warner describes Barb with much adoration and respect, saying that “chasing a dream, running into obstacles, falling down, swearing a blue streak, getting up, swearing some more, knocking back a Scotch, chasing the dream again”.
See through shirts aside, at the end of the day Barb says what you want to say to people, but can’t. She is relate-able and ready to be rooted for.
Who can’t get down with that?
Story: Chris Warner Art: Patrick Olliffe
Story: 7.5 Art: 9 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Read
Dark Horse Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
