Luke Owen reviews WWE #1…
Seth Rollins. Roman Reigns. Dean Ambrose. Together they formed The Shield, one of the most dominant factions in WWE history—until the ultimate opportunist Seth chose to betray the group at the behest of Triple H, the “King of Kings” who has cemented himself as the authority in control of WWE. Now, eager to prove himself, Seth is on the hunt for the WWE Championship, a journey that will send him on a collision course with his former brothers…
You’d think it would be pretty easy to adapt a comic based on the exploits of World Wrestling Entertainment as not only do you have all the characters created for you and fleshed out, you also have the storylines penned. Well, at least to a certain extent. You have the matches and outcomes from those involved in the story, but there is some creative freedom in making up the backstage segments we don’t get to see in a total kayfabe reality. In this comic book form, WWE is 100% real and these are real-life people having genuine backstage dramas that lead to fights in the squared circle. Does it work? Well, BOOM! Studios first issue of WWE is pretty entertaining, but it’s mostly just standard fluff.
The story chosen for WWE #1 follows on from their SDCC special which detailed the break-up of The Shield when Seth Rollins turned his back on Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. The comic picks up at Money in the Bank that year, where Rollins won the ladder match with the help of The Authority lead by Triple H, and it follows his path of trying to win his boss’s approval before cashing in his contract to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania.
Off the bat WWE #1 is great to look at. Serg Acuna’s artwork and Doug Garbark’s colouring is fantastic and they really capture the likenesses of all the characters, particularly Rollins who is the focal point. You can look at a panel and easily recognise who every one is, although you could argue a lot of the work is done for them as WWE superstars always wear their own t-shirts. The in-ring action is also really fluid, and each panel captures the right moment of a match to tell the story. More time and space could have been given to them, however, as sometimes they don’t have the impact needed. A large bulk of the story is around Rollins suffering a string of losses following his win at Money in the Bank which hits Triple H’s confidence in him and fuels their relationship. But these loses don’t really mean that much in terms of the way the story is structured. Thankfully Acuna and Garbark nail his WrestleMania match against Randy Orton, which is key to the comic’s story.
Sadly what lets the comic down is the writing from Dennis Hopeless, which – horrible as it is to say – is pretty hopeless. The internal monologue for Rollins works great in moving the story forward, and the meetings with Triple H and Shawn Michaels are nice, but the dialogue between all the wrestlers is quite cringe-worthy. Rollins’ interactions with Reigns are awful, but his war of words with Ambrose is even worse. You could say these conversations and exchanges are on a par with the current level of WWE’s television, but they feel kind of disastrous when written down on paper. Hopeless isn’t completely at fault here, as he has to work within the constraints of the story and characters, but it’s not exactly a well-written masterpiece.
There’s also a bonus story about The New Day travelling through time. Which… is there.
Who is this comic for? Outside of children WWE’s biggest demographic – and the ones with the most cash to burn – are the diehard fans in their 20s and 30s. WWE #1 isn’t really made for children, but it doesn’t appeal to the diehard fans either. The artwork is great and all, but you would have to be a serious fan of WWE to go out of your way to check this out. It’s good and there is some room for growth in future issues, but this is just an average outing for the time being.
Rating: 5/10
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the co-host of The Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen and read his weekly feature The Week in Star Wars.
