Comic review: United States vs Murder Inc #1

[bedsitter23]

United States vs. Murder, Inc. (2018-) #1 (United States vs. Murder, Inc. by Brian Bendis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


With this, here’s the final review of Bendis’s four new books.

This is a sequel of sorts to Bendis’s United States of Murder from 2014-15. My memory is short but I tend to remember it as liking the concept (America is split by crime families) but the actual execution was a bit lacking.

This was confusingly marketed to the point I wasn’t sure if it was a reprint or a relaunch. It does appear to be a relaunch with a new jumping in point.

Issue one gives us Jagger Rose, a little girl whose father is killed by the mob and is forced into a life of an assasin.

Hey, wait? Isn’t this the plot of Hit-Girl?

Hit Girl, Kicka— or somewhere in between- this feels like Bendis writing a Mark Millar story.

While Bendis’s forte is crime fiction, this is just so over the top. It’s way too snappy to be in the same ballpark as Elroy or Rucka or Vachss or any of the number of the writers in the genre. I blame Oeming I’m part because his art gives it that kind of gravitas.

It’s exaggeration and over the top cartoony cliche (“broads” and “youse guys”) and bad jokes and throwing people off the roof and all the kind of stuff that one gets from Millar. Oh, it’s Bendis and Jinxworld through and through, but Ellroy it ain’t.

Which is fine now that I know that. I give it four stars on my scale for comics since it is pretty enjoyable. It should appeal to longtime Bendis fans. Because of the content, I think the ceiling for this comic is somewhat limited, but from the guy who breathed life into side characters like Sam and Twitch, this has potential to at least be quite enjoyable.



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