I Heart Skull-Crusher #1 Review: A Dark and Delightful Genre Mash-up

Mashing up several different genres/concepts to create something new doesn't always work out well. It's easy for that kind of Frankenstein-esque build to draw too much from one thing or another, forgetting to create its own voice while trying to homage so many others. I Heart Skull-Crusher, the new Boom! Studios series from screenwriter Josie Campbell, manages to avoid those pitfalls entirely. Some of its elements may seem familiar, but there's enough soul and originality throughout the pages of the first issue that it consistently feels fresh and exciting.

I Heart Skull-Crusher #1 is written by Campbell and features art by Alessio Zonno. It feels about as anime a comic as you'll find from the major American publishers. From her over-the-top expressions to her infectious inner monologue, main character Trini feels ripped straight out of an anime series, and that can be more difficult to pull off than you might expect. She's trying to rip herself up off the page and come alive in nearly every panel and it's delightful to watch her interact with such a scary and downtrodden world.

Trini lives in a post-apocalyptic America where the most popular form of entertainment is a violent sport called Screaming Pain Ball. It seems like a version of cricket where players are also encouraged to murder their enemies in the middle of games. Spending her life training to be like her favorite Screaming Pain Ball star Skull-Crusher, Trini finally gets an opportunity when the government announces a tournament where the winning team gets to join the lineup of Skull-Crusher's professional squad. The only problem for Trini is that she has no friends to build a team with and no water to buy her way into the tournament. So she sets out to assemble a team of misfits and underdogs hoping to live her dream.

This is a premise you've roughly heard before. How many sports movies have we seen with the exact same underdog concept? There are plenty, but Campbell's ingenuity and Trini's darkly hilarious spirit keep this story from becoming a retread of anything that has come before. Whether it be the violent elements of Screaming Pain Ball, the tyrannical government making the apocalypse even worse, or Trini's closest confidants being the skulls of her long-dead parents, I Heart Skull-Crusher zigs where so many other versions of this underdog tale typically zag.

It helps that Zonno's work with these characters is so lively and energetic. Trini obviously takes center stage and has the most animated personality of anyone else in the comic, but every member of the supporting cast feels so wholly alive in their own right. So much of that life and vibrance comes from Zonno's mastery of their expressions, postures, and movements. Everything is crisp, readable, and fun.

Perhaps the most exciting element of I Heart Skull-Crusher after this debut is that it's hard to tell exactly where it's going next. Could it follow other underdog stories from other mediums and simply follow Trini on a straight-forward road to victory? Absolutely. But there's no indication in this debut issue that "normal" is even in the same ballpark as what Campbell is going for. This comic book appears to be more Wacky Racers than The Mighty Ducks, and that's more than enough reason for me to keep coming back.

Published by Boom Studios

On March 13, 2023

Written by Josie Campbell

Art by Alessio Zonno

Colors by Angel De Santiago

Letters by Jim Campbell

Cover by Alessio Zonno