Bad Ass #4

By Herik Hanna, Bruno Bessadi and Gaetan Georges

Everybody loves an anti-hero; for one reason or another there is something that attracts mass amounts of people to the person who is reluctant to do the right thing. Well, Dead End is not an anti-hero or really a hero at all, but rather a man who is out for revenge on all the people who have wronged him. In fact, we probably shouldn’t be rooting for him at all.

This is a series that caught people off guard as there was very little hype surrounding it upon release, but it was well written. Herik Hanna does a fine job of spoofing the superhero genre in this book, even down to the cover of this issue is a parody of Amazing Spider-Man #129. Hanna succeeds in actually getting us to root for Jack Parks as he hunts down everyone who has made his life miserable. Throughout the whole mini, Hanna has made it a point to show that Jack doesn’t actually have any powers or abilities; he insists that he is just lucky. There are never really any answers as to how or why he is so lucky and that is something that was interesting and never fully got fleshed out, which was a little irritating. The mini also ends oddly, almost as if it wasn’t meant to end this way, which puts a bit of a damper on the overall story.

The art is done by Bruno Bessadi with colors by Gaetan Georges. The two do a very nice job this issue making the art look good and fitting for the story. Most of the death scenes are drawn very well and it’s very easy to follow what happens. There aren’t many comic panels where someone gets scalped by a broken hotel window, but Bruno Bessadi drew it, and drew it well. The work done by Bessadi and Georges make this an even more enjoyable read because they are clearly on the same page as Hanna. Bessadi and Georges clearly gave a great effort in this series and it shows in the pages of every issue.

Bad Ass was a good under the radar little story. The ending left things open for another mini-series or even possibly an ongoing. Herik Hanna and Bruno Bessadi have a good dynamic that will hopefully be seen again in the future. If you haven’t read this title, give it a shot, it was fun and overall very enjoyable.