Writer: Josie Campbell
Artist: Alessio Zonno
Colorist: Angel De Santiago
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Cover Artists: Alessio Zonno, Johanna The Mad & Frany
Publisher: Boom!
Price: $4.99
Release Date: June 19, 2024
Trini’s Podunk Lil’ Team beat the Bubble City Bullets and The Plague Town Masks. They've swept the competition, defeating the Neo Navada Nets, The Bombers, The Dead City Drills, The Forever-War Warriors (Joe Haldeman’s favorite team), and the Nightmare-Ville Mechs. How will they fare in the Finals of Queen Mob’s Screaming Pain Ball tournament? Let's get our heads in the game, leap into I Heart Skull-Crusher #4, and find out!
Story
Screaming Pain Ball is the national sport of the American Waste. Trini Wastelander fell in love with the game when she was six, and no one embodied SPB better than Skull-Crusher. Trini dreams of becoming a great SPB player and joining Skull-Crusher’s team, but her town gets overlooked by team scouts. So when Queen Mob announced that a national tournament would be open to amateurs, Trini knew this was her shot at the big time. She created the Podunk Lil' Team. Her love of the game and loyalty to her teammates have helped them reach the Finals. So they travel to Crater Town to face off against the remaining teams. But first, they must survive the Tyrants' Dinner.
Trini and Cutter Dan dress up and mix with the tyrants. Marcus, the former captain and forward striker of the Bubble City Bullets, attends with two of his mutant players. Marcus messes with Cutter Dan's head, suggesting Cutter Dan left the Bubble City Bullets when Marcus abandoned the field and forfeited the game. But Cutter Dan is more concerned about protecting Trini.
While other players happily live and let die, Trini reveres her national pastime and feels honored to be a participant. In I Heart Skull-Crusher #4, Josie Campbell grants Trini part of her dream, reveals more of Cutter Dan’s history, and explains why Coach Blood-Bone found solace in alcohol. Until now, Trini’s love for the game, her team, and Skull-Crusher have kept her going. What happens at the Tyrants’ Dinner shakes Trini's world and makes her question her actions and goals.
Don’t cry, Trini! Use your illusion to defeat them!
Art
Logos and teasers of the teams fill the first column of a diagonal elimination chart. Key scenes from recent fights spill across the opening pages. As Trini, Cutter Dan, and the twins push their broken-down Dakar Rally truck through jagged barren hills, the ankle-chained Coach Blood-Bone sunbathes on the roof, and David, the Anti-Mutant Bear-Man, pokes his head out a window, defiantly wearing his hat backward. They behold islands and a grassy tree-dotted peninsula bisecting a lake-filled crater. Then they walk down the brick streets of Crater Town as pennants flutter overhead between the tall buildings. A flying saucer hits the team with a spotlight and activates a cannon in I Heart Skull-Crusher #4.
Angel De Santiago keys limited palettes to Alessio Zonno’s settings and character interactions. Grays, browns, and yellow steep Crater Town and an elegant mansion, mutants drool green ooze, and closeups are grounded in vibrant red, pink, and orange. A redhead in a scarlet-stained white parka skates across a purple background as a penguin offers Trini a green cocktail.
Jim Campbell fills white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes with uppercase and lowercase lettering in eye-catching fonts. Team names are stylized and often mimic 3D. Sound effects help us hear a zeppelin fly overhead and release a payload with an almighty wham. Cheering fills the air as a shocking crash accompanies a soul-crushing realization in I Heart Skull-Crusher #4. Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
We learn why Queen Mob wanted Podunk Lil’ Team dead or alive (okay, mostly dead), Coach Blood-Bone tells disbelievers of David The Anti-Mutant Bear-Man to have a nice day, and Trini falls in and out of love in I Heart Skull-Crusher #4.
Rating 9/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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