DC Comics’ Punchline: The Gotham Game #1, where “The Clown Countess of Crime Returns”, kicks off with a press conference and public rant by Prosecutor Office spokesperson Ventura Fremont. Yikes, Alexis Kaye, aka the Punchline, has been acquitted!
And so it starts, the first issue of Punchline. Social media personalities endangering themselves for a few more followers, people losing teeth, getting cut in the face. It’s violent and fast-moving. Tini Howard and Blake Howard write the drama, write the fights, write the wrongs. They bang the gong, get it on and get on with things. It’s all happening, everything yelling and binging and dinging, all the time. Stop! The subplots and subterfuge are arresting!
And Gleb Melnikov illustrates the details, the curls of the hair of the bitten dog, the shakes of the hand, the lacing of the boots, it’s all there. Luis Guerrero illuminates the lighting, brings attention to the essence, the surface values of the scene. Becca Carey is busy as can be, lettering the multi-dialogued panels, the captions, the steady stream of overplayed social media posts.
If you are looking for a lot packed in a punch, this comic is it. Solid, tense, wirey, and full of coiled rage. It’s angry, it’s snappy and it’s epic.
DC Comics, Punchline The Gotham Game #1, $3.99 for 23 pages of content
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