By: John C. Mayberry

The original IPS bastards have done it again, kids!  Finally had the chance to read Space Bastards #2, and yeah, I laughed way harder at the brutality than I should have.  I frighten even myself sometimes…half the time…never, never have I frightened myself, I’m awesome!  Getting back on track here I was pleased to see everything that made issue one as entertaining as it was back in full force.

Issue one set the stage of what the series is about and in all its funny, dismembering glory, but instead of following the protagonist David from the previous issue, readers are now focusing on Roy Sharpton.  After becoming belligerently drunk at a Native American casino, good old Roy is escorted out and knocked out cold by security.  Seeing this as a rare chance at payback at his oppressors, the casino owner gives Roy ownership of the IPS.  Which Roy is ecstatic to find out…until he discovers the IPS is 14 million dollars in debt.  The following events detail the steady rise of the IPS from being broke as hell to being wildly successful, at the cost of life, limb, and a whole bunch of meat and other chunks strewn about without care.

Space Bastards #2 has everything I absolutely loved about the first issue, in addition to building more onto the history of the IPS and its alcoholic, loudmouth failed excuse of a businessman Roy Sharpton.  These guys had me laughing right from the cover, and I laughed harder still at the carnage within the pages also.  Probably too hard.  Definitely too hard.  Go on, read it.  See if you don’t wet your pants laughing.

PROS:

Cover art – “Tired of getting kicked in the balls?  We want you!”.  If this doesn’t get anybody’s attention or at least a chuckle out of them, I have no idea what else will.  In your face and attention grabbing, the cover of Space Bastards #2 sets the tone for the series perfectly.

Character history – Although Roy himself was not an overly big part of issue one, it was interesting to see the focus on him and how he got the IPS where it is.  Origin stories always make for interesting reads, and the story of Roy Sharpton is one of the most profane, violent, and funniest ones I have ever come across.

Visual storytelling – The dialogue is great as always, as is a sequence of visual storytelling I enjoyed the hell out of that had all the comedic carnage you could possibly want.  No dialogue, just action.  Destructive, chaotic action.  Did I mention the hilarity of the carnage yet?

Pacing – Not too fast, not too slow.  Readers are given enough of the action and story, with enough (or not enough depending on who you are) violence and humor to keep them coming back for more of this tasty example of futuristic, bastardly mayhem.  As a certain purple-skinned mad Titan once said, “Perfectly balanced.  As all things should be”.

OVERALL SCORE: 10 out of 10

You nailed it, ya bastards!  One of the best collaborations I’ve had the pleasure to come across.  Executed flawlessly, and with more to come, Space Bastards is a series I’m glad I had the chance to catch from the beginning.  I smell 100 issues, then 100 more after that.  Freaking sweet job, guys, keep it coming!