Bomb Queen: Trump Card #3 // Review
A supervillain is in a neck-and-neck U.S. presidential race against Donald Trump. She needs to get ahead in the polls. She does so with homicidal style in Bomb Queen: Trump Card #3. Writer/artist Jimmie Robinson pummels a little bit of complexity into the mini-series in the latest chapter, which gives Bomb Queen plenty of time to be gruesomely violent, abhorrently duplicitous, and beautifully clever. The issue of the series that’s out the week of the 2020 presidential election is conspicuously lacking one of its title characters, but the Queen is more than enough of a draw to make this issue reasonably appealing.
Neil of the online superhero watchdog group Capewatch walks into a toy store in a shopping mall in Chicago to openly steal a Shadowhawk action figure. Evidently getting picked-up for shoplifting is the only way he has of meeting with the FBI. He’s got information he wants to explore. They’re doubtful he’s going to be of much use. Elsewhere, White Knight is being attacked by his own team. Super Team Patriot found out that he’s responsible for Bomb Queen’s presidential bid. They’re kind of upset that he would help a fascistic megalomaniac into the White House. He’s got a lot of explaining to do.
Trump is kind of a big draw for the series. There’s real catharsis in seeing a beautifully wicked woman dominate an ugly egomaniac. It’s kind of strange that Robinson would choose to run an entire issue without the mini-series’ main antagonist. It may not have much in the way of build-up to a climax, but Robinson’s central focus this issue is Bomb Queen’s ruthless cunning. The focus on the main anti-heroine turns out to be a good choice in an entertainingly violent and gruesome issue.
Robinson’s sense of anatomy and dynamic motion is as stiff as ever. The action sequences tend to be static, lying more or less flat on the page. There IS a powerful appeal in Robinson’s visuals, though. Of particular note is a moment in which Bomb Queen punches a hole through a hero and pulls the head of one of that hero’s teammates directly through the cavity she’s made in the woman’s chest. It’s grizzly, but there IS a kind of beauty in it and Robinson’s colors render a very appealing and detailed web of blood over the masked face that’s been pulled through the body. There’s a real love for the beauty of the horror. It’s not all gruesome, though. There are a few moments of drama that make it to the page with a sense of style.
The first issue hit comics racks the week of the Republican National Convention. The third issue is released the day after the election. The series wraps-up next month with the fourth issue in the series, which makes it to comic shops on December 9th, the day after the officially mandated deadline for resolving all disputes for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. The final issue matches-up with the last possible day that the winner would be announced on this side of the comics page. Intended or not, the timing for this series has been a bit weird.
