Writer: Josie Campbell
Artist: Alessio Zonno
Colorist: Angel De Santiago
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Cover Artists: Alessio Zonno, Toni Infante; Alessio Zonno; Alessio Zonno and Angel De Santiago
Publisher: Boom!
Price: $4.99
Release Date: July 17, 2024
Trini Wastelander defied the naysayers. Her Podunk Lil’ Team trounced the Tyrant-funded teams. Can Trini’s team defeat their opponents in the final round of Queen Mob’s championship and join Skull-Crusher’s team? Let's get our heads in the game, leap into I Heart Skull-Crusher #5, and find out!
Story
Forget one team competing against another. Forget the rules. In this final game of Queen Mob’s Screaming Pain Ball tournament, spectators cheer as five teams compete on an obstacle course akin to Canyonlands National Park.
Queen Mob built Earth’s largest stadium. She transported it to Crater Town via airship. Then she poisoned a lake that survived the Bad Week and the Murder Winds. The final game in I Heart Skull-Crusher #5 shows Queen Mob’s disdain for all others and the rules. People live and die to please her whims. Tyrants—the leaders of bubble cities--are disposable. Skull-Crusher has been her favorite champion. But the times, they are A-Changin’.
Skull-Crusher lit up Trini’s world. Growing up with little to call her own, Skull-Crusher became her idol and Screaming Pain Ball her obsession. Skull-Crusher also came from the American Wastes. Coach Blood-Bone trained Skull-Crusher. He saw her rise through the competition to become Queen Mob's favorite. Then, the coach abandoned the sport that defined him and drowned himself in alcohol while Skull-Crusher grew disillusioned and cynical.
Trini gave the twins a new purpose in life. She gave Coach Blood-Bone a reason to hope. She gave Cutter Dan a new family after his older brother’s death. In I Heart Skull-Crusher #5, Josie Campbell strips away Skull-Crusher’s veneer of heroism, and Trini sees her idol as she is. Trini must choose between the reality that made Skull-Crusher an inspiration and the dream that forged her into the leader of the best amateur team of the American Wastes.
Art
Lights illuminate packed grandstands and an obstacle course that dwarfs the competitors. Panels radiate like banners as silhouettes cheer before a big-screen closeup of Trini and Alessio Zonno compares the spectators to a young girl worshipping her idol. As Skull-Crusher breaks down barriers with a Sakaaran hammer, the dripping love skulls vanish from Trini's eyes. The girl picks up a twin and becomes The Running Woman amid her idol’s warpath.
A white blade slices into a twin's green-and-pink arm, and yellow energy crackles like lightning. Spectrums of green, pink, and yellow light radiate from Queen Mob's court, evoking the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. A green flashback reveals the decision that changed Skull-Crusher forever. Trini’s hero yanks a chain that scatters silhouettes at the heart of a yellow-and-orange explosion.
Amid Angel De Santiago’s vibrant colors in this action-packed finale, Jim Campbell fills white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes with small uppercase lettering that emboldens for inflection, shrinks for lowered voices, and enlarges for shouts. Sound effects emphasize The Most Dangerous Game, the destruction of an arena, and the death of a town in I Heart Skull-Crusher #5. Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Screaming Pain Ball was Trini's ticket out of the American Wastes. Queen Mob promised the winner a career alongside her champion. But Queen Mob changes the rules and redefines the reward in I Heart Skull-Crusher #5, while Trini discovers an essential truth about herself. On the brink of achieving her life dream, Trini discovers that winning won't bring the success she envisioned.
Rating 9/10
To view more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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