Writer: Josie Campbell
Artist: Alessio Zonno
Colorist: Angel De Santiago
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Cover Artists: Alessio Zonno & Fell Hound
Designer: Grace Park
Editors: Kenzie Rzonca, Elizabeth Brei & Matt Gagnon
Special Thanks: Dafna Pleban
Publisher: Boom!
Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 26, 2025
When no teams would accept Trini, she founded Podunk Lil' Team and convinced Coach Blood-Bone to train them. Her team of wastelanders disgraced the professionals in Queen Mob's contest. While this delighted Queen Mob, it angered the Bubble City tyrants. Queen Mob isn't looking for sycophants. Nor does she want someone who kowtows to others. Even Trini’s idol caved to the system. So Queen Mob disowned her son Marcus and made things harder on Trini by splitting up the Podunk Lil' Team.
Trini plays on Team Skull Crusher. Marcus Mob is her captain. Queen Mob will use her new Bubble Cities Tournament to find her successor. Everything is in play, and everyone hates Trini. While Queen Mob holds Team Skull-Crusher to Trini’s No Killing vow, the other teams chomp at the bit to take advantage of triple murder points. Will her new teammates kill Trini for making their lives difficult? Can Team Skull-Crusher survive the Bubble Cities Tournament amid the fierce power struggle? Let's get our heads in the game, leap into I Heart Skull-Crusher #8, and find out!
Story
When Team Skull-Crusher arrives in Alaska, they get a cold reception. They don't get lavish digs. Trini's captain, Marcus Mob, blames her for losing their sponsors. She may be their star rookie and the apple of Queen Mob's eye, but the former heir wants to kill her. But then, Trini shamed him when they played on opposing teams.
In the wasteland once called Phoenix, Skull-Crusher threatened to kill Trini. But Trini's idol seems to warm to her in their cold barracks at Iceberg Dome. Their former sponsors liked Skull-Crusher’s teammates because they stayed out of her way and let Skull-Crusher win by murdering the opposition. This approach made her a champion but soured Skull Crusher on Screaming Pain Ball. So, in I Heart Skull-Crusher #8, Trini's idol conceives a bold new strategy. Instead of exploiting the rules, why not play the game?
Screaming Pain Ball may have always been a blood sport. But in Josie Campbell’s story, it has devolved into little more than deadly gladiator contests. Trini couldn't see that growing up because she adored the sport and idolized Skull-Crusher. But with the other teams studying Trini's playbook and anxious to reap the rewards for killing her, Trini and Skull-Crusher realize they must embrace the game's spirit and reject the exploitation of death and destruction it has become.
Art
Outside Iceberg Dome, a billboard promises spectators that the Iceberg Dome Fighters will kill Trini Wastelander. Faced with little more than barren mattresses and toilets, Marcus and her teammates surround Trini in the empty hall. Skull-Crusher breaks through the thin wall to pull Trini onto the practice court. Then, she demolishes another wall to reveal Coach Blood-Bone drinking away his problems in I Hate Skull-Crusher #8.
Angel De Santiago applies a series of limited palettes to Alessio Zonno’s fanciful characters, fraught action scenes, over-the-top caricatures, and silhouettes. Intensity and emotion heighten the colors while treating Trini and Skull-Crusher's cold welcome as little more than a charcoal drawing. The green and magenta bandit twins seem at home amid the purple-shaded dome, while a white seat amid purple spectators reveals Cutter Dan's absence. Attended by her penguin servants, Tyrant Tasha looks resplendent in her white parka while seated on her ice block throne. As Team Skull-Crusher enters the arena, Trini's memories of training for this bout receive mauve, orange, and brown.
Jim Campbell fills white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes with small uppercase lettering that grows bold for inflection and enlarges for volume. Tyrant Tasha speaks shaky lines of lowercase letters with increased spacing into dialogue balloons. Giant letters and music notes accompany storybook depictions of Dave The (Mutant) Bear-Man's latest exploits in I Hate Skull-Crusher #8. Sound effects enhance a training session and tournament match as deceptive holograms crackle, and the spectators shout their desire for broken bones and dead wastelanders. Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
When Queen Mob announced her second Bubble Cities Tournament, the other tyrants objected to her bringing new blood into the sport. They could accept Skull-Crusher because the crowds adored her, and she won. However, allowing other wastelanders to join their ranks will dilute the purity of their society. As Queen Mob threatens to break the culture that uplifted her, Trini wonders who she can trust with her life in I Heart Skull Crusher #8: her former teammates or idol.
Rating 9/10
For more covers see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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