Turncoat by Ryan O'Sullivan, Plaid Klaus

Turncoat
by Ryan O'Sullivan, Plaid Klaus
Pages: 164
Date: September 6 2016
Publisher: T Pub
Series: Turncoat
URL: http://turncoatcomic.com/comic/cover/

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: August 22 2016

*I received this book from NetGalley in return for a fair review.*

Turncoat is a graphic novel about an assassin who goes around killing lower tier superheros to 'keep the superhero population down'. Though he wants to score bigger prey.

He is old, smokes, and balding with a bad comb-over. He is not like Deadshot and . . um . . Deathstrike? Whatever the heck the assassins are called in DC Comics and Marvel - I never particularly liked or cared about them so I can't exactly recall their names (though Deadshot was one of the ones in Suicide Squad: The Movie, right?).

Like in the movie (maybe like in the comics? No idea, haven't read his comics), this assassin wears a mask when he goes for the kill. His first kill is Bug-Boy - and it's bloody and graphic. So you know this isn't a kiddies comic. It also isn't exactly funny.

The illustrations are good. For the most part. The assassin's dog does't really look like a dog. But meh. Had to look several times before I could tell that white blob was supposed to be a dog. Well, the first time I saw the dog at least.

This isn't the first Superhero parody I've read, I've read several though the only two that come immediately to mind are 'SideKick' and 'The Boys'. The second one kind of was extended long past it's expiration date and fizzed out. I'm not sure I actually read all of Sidekick or not, though it seemed to be getting better there near the end.

Second target is 'Freedom Fighter'. And MC dude fails in his mission. Because he arrived too late.

And then the ex-wife appeared. Sharon. Of course MC dude looks like an out of shape old bald dude while the ex-wife looks like a 'super-hot babe' type. mmphs. Also she has no blade discipline. I think she just cut her own leg off just now (well, not really, but the illustration kind of looks that way . . . a little). Huh. She just broke her ankle after doing a superhero/villian type leap - you know, injured herself like you would expect if you happened to see someone attempt to do a superhero move who isn't a superhero. That was kind of unexpected. And not exactly funny. Maybe I was mistaken about this having humor in it.

Oh right sorry. The story line. Right, so, assassin dude gets small fry to kill to keep the superhero population down, but then the biggest of the big, the Liberty Brigade, gets a target pinned to them. And so . . . that happened.

This is really kind of lame. And the main character is super annoying. bah.

Okay, I finally snorted in a vaguely laughing kind of way. Yes! Snorted! When a reporter asks a super loaded question of Black Prince.

Hmm. 'Sadly' the book pulled itself out of its nosedive before the end.

August 22 2016