The Extremist #1 Review

Title:	The Extremist
Contributors:	Peter Milligan Ted McKeever
Publisher:	Vertigo
Issue #:	1
Year:	1993
Pages:	32 Pages
Age Rating:	18 (Language, Violence, Nudity, Adult Themes)
Story Grade:	D
Art Grade:	D

Judy Tanner wants to get revenge after the murder of her husband Jack. She dives deep into the underbelly of the BDSM subculture with her pseudo-identity of that of "The Extremist", an alias her husband used in both his life as the customer of some the most extreme sex clubs in the world, and as a most feared assassin for an organization called "The Order".

Sounds like a great start to amazing series right, something in line with the movie 8mm? Well if you are like me, you'd be wrong. Thank God above I pulled this from a $1 bin. I was utterly disappointed with this book. For the first book in a series, where the author needs to get things straight and set the story up for future books, this story had too many plot/logic holes, most big enough to park the planet Jupiter in. These holes shouldn't be confused with unanswered questions which are allowed in a first book because that is what brings us back to read issue two. But to give you an example of a planetary sized hole, take this as a reference:

I for one would like to know how a common housewife goes from everyday housewife who is grieving the loss of her husband to becoming a trained BDSM assassin overnight, or at least over the course of a few months. This is the type of planetary-size-plot-hole I am talking about. There are other questions I have that deal with psychological issues around BDSM and her particular character as well, but that is something else altogether.

I don't know the complete history of DC/Vertigo, but this is actually who this book was published under. I don't know if this might have been DC's proving ground for alt comics to see if they actually had a market for more violent, alternative comics; 1993 seems like the time when this was becoming the transition time for more risky content. They might have also used Vertigo for lesser known artists and writers to prove themselves. I don't know, but this is how this particular book comes across; experimental and amatuer.

The artwork is simply not good compared to the standards of the time that the book was published in. It art is muddled, the lines are are not crisp, there is little depth and shadows are heavy-handed. All in all, for me it looks like the work of young artist getting his first break and deciding it would be fun to draw some occasional boobs and characters in gimp suits.

If I am to be fair about the art, the art itself may actually help the book which is why I didn't give it an F. The art is ugly, and it may have been the artist's intention to do that. It paints an ugly picture of a world that is usually beautiful, as we normally see it. That doesn't mean I liked it. I am simply saying I admit that it may have helped pull the book from complete failure. If the artwork would have been better, a C or higher, I would have been able to overlook the plot holes and continued reading the series to the end, meaning I would have purchased the remaining titles in the short series, but alas I won't be because I don't believe the story, I don't care about the characters and I don't like the art so why would I bother spending my money.

I graded the book a D overall. The story's concept was interesting and was worth investigating, but the plot holes are too big to be overlooked and needed to be fixed before going to print. And while the artwork may have helped the book overall, it hurt my eyes to look at it and made sure I didn't want to buy any more issues. This book validates my cautious nature around Vertigo titles... they tend to be hit or miss for me... with more misses than hits.

Until next time... happy gimping.