Today marks the launch of a new series from Boom! Studios written by Fabien Vehlmann and illustrated by industry giant Sean Phillips. This series, titled 7 Psychopaths, is in the vein of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and tracks one colonel in the British army as he works with the sanest insane person in Britain to pick a team of seven to kill Hitler once and for all. This hotly anticipated series is on racks today.
Check out my review after the jump.
7 Psychopaths
Written by: Fabien Vehlmann
Illustrated by: Sean Phillips
7 Psychopaths follows a man named Colonel Thompson, a man just recently returned from what I can only assume was a period of “rest” in a local insane asylum, as he pursues a man who wrote to him from an asylum claiming he knew how to take out Hitler once and for all. It seems the British upper management has long given up on the idea of actually assassinating the Fuhrer, but Joshua Goldschmidt (the man who wrote him) knows a way: use only people who are crazy enough to not realize killing Hitler is impossible…the insane.
It’s an interesting concept, and something writer Vehlmann pulls off fairly well. This issue finds Thompson and Goldschmidt meeting and then quickly attempting to gather their team. The whole exercise is very entertaining, as they bring in a man who is convinced he speaks telepathically with Hitler, a master of disguise, a soldier at the end of his rope, and a remarkable sharpshooter who suffers from pathological nervous breakdowns (assassinating the most protected man in the world will definitely help with those). There has to be a bit of a suspension of disbelief here, as Thompson is a man who was just dressed down by high command and someone who isn’t exactly powerful, yet now he’s assembling this crack(ed) team right in the midst of British Intelligence.
For an issue of exposition and set up though, it thoroughly entertains and creates a very entertaining co-lead in Goldschmidt.
Phillips predictably has another standout issue, but I’m a big fan of his work. It was nice to see his art on something a bit less noir for the first time in a while, as Hubert’s colors really bring his art out and give it a bit of life I haven’t seen in a while outside of his work with Ed Brubaker. There were some particularly exceptional spots from Phillips here, including one panel on the bottom left corner of page 21. It’s a very dynamic image, and something that really shows off the true power Phillips possesses.
This is a book that I was only willing to pick up because of my adoration of Phillips’ art and because of the plot itself. I found it intriguing, even if it does feel like a variation on the Basterds‘ formula. While it reads a little awkwardly and requires a significant amount of suspension of disbelief, it ends up being a pretty entertaining read that could lead to a very fun series. Check it out, at least for the first few issues.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy
