“WWE” #5

Dean Ambrose takes a trip to Suplex City and lives to tell the tale. Read on for our review of “WWE” #5 but be warned, there will be spoilers.

Written by Dennis Hopeless
Illustrated by Serg Acuna
Colored by Doug Garbark
Lettered by Jim Campbell
Dean Ambrose: the scrappy, wild-eyed, people’s champion who never says die-and the Lunatic Fringe. While his ex-brothers are obsessing over the championship, Dean has taken crazy to an entirely new level by provoking the scariest man in the WWE-the beast incarnate, Brock Lesnar.

Dean Ambrose – lunatic, scrappy, former Shield member, and wearer of jeans. “WWE” spent its first arc focused on the rise, fall and rise again of Seth Rollins and for its second arc, it shifts focus to another former Shield member. From a timeline standpoint, this makes a ton of sense and so “WWE” #5 shifts its attention to Dean Ambrose. “WWE” #5 does a lot of things right and is another really solid issue for a series that continues to surprise me.

“WWE” #5 begins the same night that “WWE” #4 ends. Seth Rollins has returned to the WWE after an injury but the focus shifts to Dean Ambrose. After an Asylum Match against Chris Jericho, Dean is on his way out of the arena when he realizes his car has decided to break down on him. As he makes his way back inside the arena to get tools, he comes across the chaos unfolding between Seth and Roman Reigns. As this is happening, Charlotte and Sasha Banks get into it and Dean lends a hand to a friend in need. It’s a normal night (for Dean Ambrose at least) until he makes the mistake of pissing off Brock Lesnar.

I have to admit, even I have been surprised by just how much I’ve enjoyed reading “WWE.” I tend to be more optimistic given the track history of WWE centric comics, I wasn’t expecting much. While the storylines covered in a broad sense have been shown and completed on television, Hopeless has found new ways to tackle the storylines and give them something very unique that adds layers to the characters in a way that the tv product can’t do. He did it with Seth Rollins in beautiful fashion and he does it now with Dean Ambrose. Dean Ambrose’s television character is kind of a wild card. He can’t quite be “anything” but he’s unpredictable and isn’t the type to deliver long winded promos. This makes the task of making him the star of a comic book a tough one. Hopeless doesn’t quite reach the heights he did with his Seth Rollins but he gives a lot nice added depth to Dean Ambrose that makes him more of an everyman than he ever was. He hits home the idea of him being self made and getting to where he is through hardwork. Dean Ambrose is supposed to be one of us in the sense that we can connect with more as an audience member than most other almost superheroic stars. Hopeless gets this through the backstory of Dean’s car, how he interacts with the worker backstage and how he interacts with fellow wrestlers. Dean comes off almost puppy like at times and this can feel a bit off but Hopeless switches him into a scrappy brawler instantly when the time calls for it.

“WWE” #5 also does something the first arc didn’t do nearly enough of – it opens the world more. This issue is very much all set up to a bigger confrontation between Dean and Brock but it takes time to broaden the scope of the series. We get an entire subplot involving Sasha Banks and Charlotte as they are in the midst of their epic feud that would take up almost a year of tv time. Hopeless tosses in a lot of catchphrases which feel a little corny but the way he ties it to Dean’s plot is a lot of fun. My biggest criticism in these handful of issues has been the lack of women superstars so it’s nice to see these two pop up in way that matters.

Serg Acuna’s art is still so good and he actually gets better in “WWE” #5. Dean Ambrose has such a unique look because it’s not special. Again, he’s the everyman so he shouldn’t look like a superhero and Acuna nails that. His look is clearly just thrown together and suited for fighting. Dean Ambrose is also a guy who wears his emotions on his face without even trying. I joke on Twitter all the time that he never actually looks how he got to the arena and that some nights he looks extra murdery. Acuna has done his work in watching how Dean Ambrose the character simply exists on television. The facial expressions for Dean here are fantastic and so varied. “WWE” and this issue in particular is elevated thanks to his work. In just the first page we get a wide array of expressions from Dean and it just gets better from there as the actual story progresses. Acuna’s Dean Ambrose is one part mischief, one part handsome rogue and another part class clown. Acuna takes this further in how he has Dean fight. It’s perfectly on point with his style and even though this is a comic book, Acuna holds back a bit and keeps this feeling like professional wrestling.

“WWE” #5 features Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Charlotte and Sasha Banks and the same that can be said about Dean Ambrose can be said for them. Acuna has really done his homework and his work sings. These aren’t photorealistic drawings but instead he gives every character his own spin without straying too far. These wrestlers live and breathe instead of being static models. I loathe Brock Lesnar and Acuna perfectly captures everything I hate about him. His arrogance, his temper and his recklessness is all here and Brock sorta doesn’t deserve this kind of excellent treatment. Garbark’s colors are just as strong and he’s better in the outdoor scenes that take place at night than in the arena. He captures moonlight really nicely with layered blues. His action backgrounds pop and his attention to color detail in regards to the styling is very good.

This new arc of “WWE” is off to a very good start and I’m very eager for more. Hopeless, Acuna and Garbark are a great team together and have proven they know exactly what they’re doing with this property.

Final Verdict: 7.8 – A very enjoyable start to the story arc. I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how quickly I’ve fallen for this series.