Comic Review: Sharkey the Bounty Hunter #1 (Image)

Sharkey The Bounty Hunter #1 by Mark Millar

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As I always remind, I have been following Millar since pretty much the first comics he wrote for DC in America- a long time. I never would have anticipated his success, and to be frank, I am surprised that he is sustaining his success this far. All that said, I still count myself as one his biggest fans.

My grip on being a Millar completist has slipped. Prodigy came and went before I noticed. Millar has unleashed yet another round of his most famous properties (Kick-a$$ and Hit-Girl), and he has even started to farm them out albeit to fairly talented folks (Kevin Smith, Jeff Lemire, Steve Niles). Still, don't blame me if I let them pass by.

Sharkey is a tough book to review. It is destined to be another Netflix vehicle from Millar.

One thing that makes it hard to review is the space bounty hunter trope is fairly well trodden territory. Not only is it hard not to think of say, Han Solo or Guardians of the Galaxy, but Sharkey is well-steeped into 8os movies like Evil Dead, but also 70s action movies and comics (Lobo, Punisher, Wolverine). Not that it's a bad idea (he looks like Lemmy) but it's been done, and better trainspotters will find better references.

The other flip side is that it kind of works. We have had a deluge of Millar books, and at a certain point, he has become prolific to distraction. What is the difference between this book and Empress? Not much.

It probably isn't helped that it has no great aspiration like Huck, but is just dirty action. The good news is that, well, Millar is pretty good at that. If I could take it out of context, this is probably the most promising title to come out of Millarworld in some time.

It was overblown action with crude jokes that took him to the top of the mountain, and well, this is pretty much a vehicle for that. This certainly could set up easily for a franchise.

Simone Bianchi would probably not have been my choice for artist for this, but I suppose he works fine for this. It plays into a rude and crude overblown character. Some kind of contrast may have benefited this book. Still, I suppose he gets the job done.

I will file this as recommended for Millar fans. When we look back in a few years at this avalanche of Millar books, this may end up getting more mileage than most.



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