Just in time for the start of the Major League Baseball season in the U.S. comes a sports story with a little bit of post-apocalyptic madness and a fair bit of heart.
Written by Josie Campbell
Illustrated by Alessio Zonno
Colored by Angel de Santiago
Lettered by Jim Campbell18-year-old Trini will do anything to compete in her favorite sport, Screaming Pain Ball, alongside her longtime hero Skull-Crusher! But she can’t do it alone, and a gaggle of misfits is just what she needs to cross the American wastes and battle in Queen Mob’s deadly tournament.
With Trini’s dreams of being just like Skull-Crusher on the line, do she and her friends have what it takes to win a coveted spot on their team?
Breakout writer of DC’s Amazons Attack event and screenwriter Josie Campbell (Wonder Woman, She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power, My Adventures With Superman) along with rising star artist Alessio Zonno (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) bring sports action to post-apocalyptic America with comic relief and brevity at its brutal heart, perfect for fans of Do A Powerbomb and Fence!
What do the 2007 New York Giants, wrestler Rulon Gardner, the 1995 New Jersey Devils, and the Miracle Mets of 1969 have in common?
They were all underdogs in their respective sports and championship seasons.
Now we have a new one to add to the list in Trini, the star of “I Heart Skull Crusher.” Trini is mad for the sport of Screaming Pain Ball, which seems to be some combination of baseball, soccer, and Quidditch, just with an added element of sanctioned murder. Sort of fits in with the story’s post-apocalyptic Hunger Games-esque landscape. Ever since she was young and saw her first Screaming Pain Ball game and its star, Skull Crusher, she was hooked. And would give her left arm to have a chance to be part of the league.
But there’s one problem: when you live out in the middle of nowhere, opportunities to join the league are few and far between. With a tournament announced and the prize being a chance to join the team of her favorite star, Trini is ready for anything. First up is getting one of the star players to return to coach, but he’s more occupied with what’s at the bottom of the bottle than what’s in a Screaming Pain Ball net.
No problem for Trini. She’ll get her team for the tournament another way. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be pretty, but she’s nothing if not determined to be a Screaming Pain Ball star.
If you’re thinking this script is a mashup of The Bad News Bears and The Hunger Games . . . well, you’re right. The parallels to Suzanne Collins’s teen dystopia novel series are all over this book, from the town kids with all the arrogance of the Career Tributes to the burnt out boozed out former player that looks and sounds a lot like District 12’s Haymitch, to the booming overlord of the decaying American Waste as a stand in for President Snow. All that’s missing is for Trini to look like a brooding Jennifer Lawrence.
But she’s what makes “I Heart Skull Crusher” different from the world of Panem. Her spunk, determination, and charm, reminiscent of what us 80s kids knew as “Punky Power” (Google it, you young’uns) keep her environment from being too depressing. There’s potential for this to become cloying and annoying if overused (much like watching reruns of any 80s sitcom from your childhood as an older, wiser, and more cynical adult), but in the right doses, it gives this book the heart it needs. We don’t meet many of Trini’s teammates in this debut issue, just two petty thieves whose attempt at robbery turns into a more legitimate (although perhaps not lucrative) opportunity. Their introduction in the final third of the book doesn’t allow for much backstory and worldbuilding for them. Let’s hope that future issues give them (and their eventual teammates) the contextual love and care they deserve, for this team is as much the heart of this story as its coach is.
Fans of sports manga and anime will certainly take to Alessio Zonno’s artwork. Zonno uses experience in drawing for BOOM! Studios’s “Power Rangers” series to heart. There’s liveliness and fluidity not just in action and sports shots, but in moments of emotion as well. When Trini barges in to Coach Blood-Bone’s house ready to ask him for his help, action lines and a change in perspective that emphasizes her pointing at her subject (alongside no-holds-barred lettering from Jim Campbell) add the air of determination and stubbornness that’s in the script. This is art that prefers using its outdoor voice rather than its indoor voice. But Zonno also knows when to quiet things down and bring Trini back to earth, such as in the moment a panel later when she realizes she’s in the same room as one of her heroes.
Continued belowColors from Angel de Santiago are monochromatic but not boring. There’s earth tones that will remind the reader of dystopias from Mad Max to the aforementioned Hunger Games, but pockets of neon and bright that look to come right out of the world of Blade Runner. If you like the art of Image Comics’s “Petrol Head,” you’ll definitely take to this art. It’s dystopia, but at least it’s a fun one.
The test for this series will be the dynamics once Trini’s team comes together. And as any sports fan can tell you, games aren’t won in the early minutes, but sometimes go until the final whistle (and occasionally into overtime).
Final Verdict: 6.7 – Seems to be a solid start with much room for growth and potential. Batter up!
