Image Comics releases a Mexican deadliest assassin who protects his own identity to have a better life in the U.S. in Gunning For Ramirez Act One, the graphic novel.
Now, let me stop you right there and use your imagination for a moment. What do you get when you take Kenshin Himura as Japan’s deadliest assassin who became a pacifist for using his samurai skills for peace and not killing, and living a better life somewhere and having a setting where the drug lords in Mexico who are going over some business, and having Mario from the Mushroom Kingdom to work as a plumber, for the time being, put them all together in a cruel world where all the assassins are going all out just to find him and kill him for betraying someone, and you’d get Gunning for Ramirez. This is actually an epic story to be read of a Mexican assassin who hides as a vacuum repairman in Arizona. This story is created by Nicolas Petrimaux, he’s a comic artist from French who is also a concept artist and storyboard artist who worked on concept designs of video games such as Dishonored 2 and Graymatter. However, the character designs are flawless which I will bring that up later.
The front cover shows such a flawless illustration which is more like the cover game of the Red Dead Redemption series and every movie cover art of Star Wars. In fact, it’s one of the most amazing cover art that I’ve ever seen, because when you witness this book, you’ll realize that you’re reading another Star Wars book with the whole text and a set of characters on this book. It’s amazing and I would expect if they make this as a Netflix adaptation, animated or live-action I don’t care, I would watch it, BIG TIME. From the starting few pages of the instructions of how to use a vacuum from Robotop, and a message from the author mentioning his sister who motivated to enroll in the comic workshop in a French art school, and apologizing his mom for the language that he wrote in this story. That whole message is heart moving because somehow he’s thanking his own family for supporting to make this comic for them and for all these years that he has done so far.
The story starts with two characters having an interrogation of the crime at the police station asking about Ramirez. Apparently one of them is the manager of Robotop industries in Arizona who Ramirez works for as a vacuum repairman. However, right now Ramirez has his hair grown as an afro, and his appearance looked more like Mario. Although he chooses to live his life as a repairman, he went through a lot to get on with his life just to have a better one. So basically, he spent his new life working at a Robotop company, right until the two old men from the cartel stumble inside and saw Ramirez there with the look of his eye, the eye of a murderer. So they ran away back to report their boss about Ramirez and thinks that he saw another person named Ramirez right out of a name tag. But despite the appearance, he actually knows that it was him with the same face. So he ordered one of his men to kidnap him, but kidnapping him is not really easy as it takes because he’s the last person that every other cartel can’t underestimate. Ramirez’ personality seems to be more innocent than a murderer, but he’s also a quiet person, almost every other silent main character around, perhaps he’s the reason that everyone is scared off right or he’s truly the hero right now. Instead of playing cat and mouse, they decided to track him quietly with his every move that he makes without having him notice. Instead, one of the cartel sends someone to take down the employers of Robotop just to get to Ramirez, and have the whole building explode. But Ramirez survived along with the company’s latest product. And now every other gang member and drug lords are going after him because they realized who he really is, so Ramirez got as far away as possible with two women who are hanging around his car just to get away from them. Now that Ramirez is wanted as a fugitive, what will happen next?
Now, the story is too epic, to begin with, if I get the feeling that I’m going over the plot of Rurouni Kenshin, but instead make way for Mexican Mario and his job as a vacuum repairman which is more subtle for being a plumber. The fact that the story is amazing is that you’re feeling like you’re watching another Netflix film, and I would love it if they put this on stream. Animated or live-action, I don’t care. The art though, what’s one thing that I could have done a thousand times by now, criticism, but I’m not doing that because the art style is what truly killed me there. I’m just going around the few pages of every movement of the characters and it seems that the author has done well making this comic in everyday life to an epic battle. The character designs just blew my mind off, Ramirez’s design resembles and took inspiration from Mario because of his personality and traits, but he’s also like Kenshin because of his personality of a pacifist and an assassin, but we never get to see Ramirez having him killing someone right now. The girls who are hanging around his car looked like some hookers who are also fugitives, but to me, the designs of the women looked cute and badass, Chelsea actually looked cute for a girl to be a fugitive, her facial expression looked like Trish from Jojo, and she’s actually has a soft side on Ramirez, while Dakota is actually a hotshot who is a good driver, badass and has affection on Chelsea. The men from the Cartel looked more like a series of Mexican gangster stereotypes who would do anything just to spread the crime around the country, but it would be hilarious if the author would bring up one of the old cartel men who looked like a group of wisecrackers. I could learn something from him because the story and the art blew my mind, and I would like to go further of this whole series on the next graphic novel. So Gunning for Ramirez is an epic comic to read, and you won’t disappoint for all the action that this comic has to take.
Newsdesk