Creators: Patrick Kindlon & Marco Ferrari
Writer: Patrick Kindlon
Artist: Maurizio Rosenzweig
Colorist: Matteo Vattani
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Designer: Matt Battaglia
Cover Artist: Maurizio Rosenzweig
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $16.99
Release Date: November 12, 2025
Once, she embraced life. Gehenna enjoyed love, belonged to someone, and looked forward to the future. Now, she dispenses judgment. What sent Gehenna on the road to death and destruction? And what is she fighting for? Let's grab our guns, leap into Gehenna: Naked Aggression TP Vol 1, and find out!
Story
Gehenna intended to kill a mob boss. Instead, she fights for her life. Gehenna scrambles with killers in the street, fighting hand-to-hand and shooting the gangsters trying to kill her. Looking for a way out, she grabs her target's son and heads inside. Gehenna needs help. Stephen doesn't seem surprised to get pulled into the eye of the storm. He has but one question. Why?
Patrick Kindlon divides each of the four issues into three chapters, leaving no time for the plot to slow down. When Gehenna shrugs off one opponent, another takes their place. Gehenna narrates most of the acts, while the rest follow her pursuers. Patrick Kindlon’s story is about a plan gone wrong. But it’s also about a life gone wrong. In Gehenna: Naked Aggression TP Vol 1, life is a machine that grinds the little people down, and Gehenna got stuck in the gears.
As in Mario Puzo’s famous novel, not all the people working for criminal families are bad. Or perhaps there are levels of evil. Some, like Kamiisa and Linira, treat people like assets and debts. Others, like Isa, are more discerning in who has a right to live. Gehenna plays by rules she won't readily break. Those include not killing children and superheroes.
Perhaps that's why young Stephen sticks by her side throughout Gehenna: Naked Aggression TP Vol 1. While she trades in violence like his father, Gehenna's life has a purpose. Gehenna may be bent on killing those she views as evildoers. But unlike his father and those who prop up his criminal empire, Gehenna believes in right and wrong.
Art
Maurizio Rosenzweig introduces each act with two widescreen scenes on double-page spreads separated by a title. Clad in leather, a utility belt, arm wrappings, and boots, Gehenna charges through panels. Muscles and hair are clearly defined, thanks to detailed penciling. Tiny dust clouds indicate rapid movement, while close-ups of weapons and gunfire enhance this die-hard thriller.
As Gehenna barrels through the chaos in white and black, Matteo Vattani enlivens scenes with a loaded palette. Isa tracks Gehenna's flight on foot, wearing black and blue. When Gehenna and Stephen take to the road, Isa leaps onto a pink scooter. Her rival, sword-wielding Linira, snears at the "old timer" from her black limousine. Redhaired Kamiisa is all business in her three-piece orange suit. Yellow and orange explosions and red liquid flowing across a blue-gray tile floor reinforce the mob boss’s ruthlessness in Gehenna: Naked Aggression TP Vol 1.
Black uppercase letters in white narrative boxes reveal the narrators' thoughts and off-camera conversations. Like the life Gehenna and her opponents lead, Jim Campbell places dialogue in jagged balloons with razor-sharp edges. White and colored sound effects enhance the action as Gehenna bulldozes through gangsters and superheroes. But then, no one said that erasing her debt to underworld society would be easy. Thanks to Image Comics for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
Gehenna tried to follow the rules. But when the other players ignored them, she dedicated her life to hurting the people who ruined hers. As Gehenna fights for what is right, the past intrudes on the present, reminding her of what she has lost.
Gehenna Naked Aggression TP Vol 1 is an over-the-top revenge tale, filled with whimsical echoes of her past, and lightened by would-be heroes, exotic animals, and salutes to pop culture. An extensive cover gallery concludes this fast-paced tale guaranteed to leave readers panting as they await Gehenna's next adventure.
Rating 9.8/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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