EPISODE ONE: RISE OF THE BUFFET WARRIOR
Created by Tom Lintern.
Edited by Andrea Lorenzo Molinari.
Production by Marcus Guillory.
Published by Scout Comics September 2021.
. . .
"ONE MAN CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE."
. . .
Review by William D. Tucker.
In the not-too-distant future-the year 2099, no less-huge indoor shopping malls have made a comeback as the centers of culture and as the engines of prosperity. So, all these YouTubers posting dead mall exploration reels are pointing the way to the future after all, it would seem . . .
But all is not well inside this capitalist utopia. The upper levels full of trendy, cyberpunky consumers are built upon the ruined lower depths where vicious biker gangs who cop their style from The Road Warrior, Akira, and Fist of the North Star shit it up however they please, occasionally rising up to rob and kill and destroy the shoppers and-more importantly-the goods and infrastructure these consumers worship.
To counteract these miscreants we have Mall Cops, who ride in the saddles of militarized Segway scooters kitted out with mini-rockets and Vulcan cannons.
During a battle between the forces of Law and Anarchy, one of these Mall Cops is grievously shot in the face by a ganger, and when he awakes from his coma, he finds he has a grotesque mullet to go with his aborning sense of disillusionment. Soon, he is recruited into an undercover operation to root out the criminal scum from the lower levels of the Megamall.
Our titular Mullet Cop is a deeply unattractive man. But powerful things often come wrapped in ugly wrappers. Mullet Cop finds a renewed sense of purpose as he is introduced to his cybernetically enhanced colleague and a talking robot microwave that plays K.I.T.T. to Mullet Cop's Hoff.
The criminal scum run an elaborate death game in the lower levels which allows for an extended goof on The Running Man, which I appreciated.
The dialogue is full of deadpan absurdities such as,
"What’s all this? Looks like Darth Vader's bathroom in here."
The look is pleasantly pukey pastel neon.
If it gets optioned for an underwhelming movie adaptation they can cast the guy from Eastbound and Down to play Mullet Cop.
This is allegedly the first issue of many to come, but that might just be another gag.
I wouldn’t mind more. The jokes landed for me. The look is comically lazy and derivative of whole bunches of other shit. The dialogue is hysterical in places.
There's even a fantasy world-building map at the very end which suggests more off-kilter escapades for our mulleted avenger to blunder into and survive by the skin of his teeth.
Mullet Cop.
He's keeping an eye on things.
I'll keep an eye on him.
